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MILTON'S 
RTER POEMS 



CHILD 








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Book ^ 

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XLbc Scrlbncr JEngllsb Classics 



EDITED BY 

FREDERICK H. SYKES, Ph.D. 

TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 



JOHN MILTON 
SHORTER POEMS 



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JOHN MILTON 

COMUS, L'ALLEGRO 

IL PENSEROSO 

AND LYCIDAS 

WITH OTHER OF MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

EDITED WITH 'INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 
BY 

CLARENCE GRIFFIN CHILD 

PH.D., L.H.D., PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH 
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1910 



rR^t^ 



Copyright, 1910, by 
Charles Scribner's Sons 



(gCI,A261i50 




PREFACE 

T^HE shorter poems of Milton that make up this volume 
■*■ comprise a group of poems among the most precious in 
English verse. They are classics in our literature, and as such 
must take their place wherever English poetry is read or studied. 
Milton is our most difficult poet, and calls for study; yet these 
poems are his least difficult work, and offer the student, there- 
fore, not only their own worth as poetry, but also the easiest 
approach to the study and love of Milton. 

It is the aim of this volume to help the teacher (who counts 
more than any book) not alone in preparing students for ex- 
amination, but also in leading them to a true appreciation of 
Milton's poetry, in and for itself. To this end several poems, 
not usually required in the examinations for college entrance, 
have been included in the volume. The notes, it is hoped, will 
prove full, but not over-full. Needed help is given in regard 
to obsolete words, in illustration of Milton's borrowings, in 
explanation of his allusions, metaphors, the more difficult 
points in his prosody and (a neglected subject) his rimes; but 
non-essentials have been resolutely omitted. 

It is always a pleasing duty to acknowledge one's indebted- 
ness to one's predecessors — who, in the present case, form a 
long line from the early editors such as Warton, Todd, and 
Newton, to the veritable host of modern witnesses, more par- 
ticularly Masson, Verity, and especially Osgood, whose ad- 
mirable Classical Mythology of Milton's English Poems, has 
imposed a lasting obligation upon every student of Milton. 
Due credit, it is believed, has been given in all cases, except such 
matters as have become commonplaces of Miltonic criticism. 

vii 



viii PREFACE 

Wherever views differing from current views are advanced, 
care has been taken to state current views as well. 

The writer wishes for every student who uses this book such 
a love for Milton's poetry as may make a school-text seem an 
impertinence. 



2>^ 

r 

f 

CONTENTS ^ 

i 

PAGE 

PREFACE vii 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE x 

DATES OF MILTON'S LIFE xi 

INTRODUCTION: 

I. The Life of Milton xiii 

II. The Poetry of Milton . xxii 

TEXT OF SHORTER POEMS: 

On the Morning of Christ's Nativity ... 3 

On Shakespeare 14 

On Having Arrived at the Age of Twenty-three 15 

L'Allegro 16 

II Penseroso 21 

CoMus 27 

Lycidas 63 

To Mr. H. Lawes, on His Airs 70 

"■ — On the Late Massacre IN Piedmont ....'. 71 
. On His Blindness 72 

NOTES 73 

INDEX TO NOTES . . „ 157 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

Texts: The most convenient and instructive complete edi- 
tion of Milton's poetical works for general reference is that of 
H. C. Beeching (Henry Frowde, New York, 1906), which repro- 
duces the poems, English and Latin, in their original form 
from the editions of 1645 and 1673. Of annotated editions, the 
most useful are those of David Masson and A, W. Verity. 
Texts of special importance for the poems in this volume are 
the Facsimile of the Manuscript of Milton's Minor Poems, 
preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, published 
by that University (available in few large libraries), and Comus. 
Facsimile from the first edition of 1637 (Dodd, Mead), 1903. 

Special Topics: Works of value on special topics are 
Robert Bridge's Milton's Prosody (Oxford, 1901), and C. G. 
Osgood's Classical Mythology of Milton's English Poems (Yale 
Studies in English), which is indispensable to the student of 
Milton. 

Biography: The standard life of Milton is that of David 
Masson, 1859-94. 

Criticism: Critical works upon the poet are innumerable, 
and the student may profitably confine himself to the essays of 
Addison, Dr. Johnson, and Macaulay (now chiefly of historic 
interest); of Lowell (in Among My Books, second series); of 
Walter Bagehot (in Literary Studies), and Edward Dowden (in 
Puritan and Anglican, New Studies in Literature), both invalu- 
able; and the suggestive and illuminating memoirs by W. P 
Trent (John Milton : Macmillan Company, New York, 1899), 
and Walter Raleigh {Milton : Putnam, New York, 1900). 



DATES OF MILTON'S LIFE 



FIRST PERIOD— 1608-1639 

1608. Born in London, December 9. 

1625. Entered Christ's College, Cambridge (B. A., 1629; M. A. 

1632; M. A., Oxford, 1635). 
1632-1638. At his father's home in Horton. 
1638-39. Travelled on the Continent. 
1639. Returned to London. 



SECOND PERIOD— 1640-1660 

1640. Leased a house in London. 
1641-1644. Pamphlets in behalf of liberty. 

1642. First sketch of a projected drama on Paradise Lost. 

Civil War begins. 

1643. Married Mary Powell. 
1645. First edition of Poems. 

1649. Charles I executed. Milton appointed Latin Secretary 

to the Commonwealth. 
1649-1651. Tracts in defence of the Commonwealth. 
1652. Became totally blind. Mary Powell dies. 
1656. Married Catherine Woodcock. 
1658. Paradise Lost begun. Second wife dies. 
1660. The Restoration. Milton in hiding until the Act of 

Indemnity. 

THIRD PERIOD 

1660-1674. In retirement in London. 

1663. Married Elizabeth Minshull. 

1665. Paradise Lost finished. 

1667. Paradise Lost published. 

1671. Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes published. 

1673. Second edition of Poems. 

1674. Revision of Paradise Lost. Died, November 8. 



INTRODUCTION 

I.— THE LIFE OF MILTON 

JOHN MILTON was born in London, December 9, 1608, 
and there died November 8, 1674. His life is usually 
divided, very helpfully, into three periods: 

The first period, 1608-1639, includes his childhood and 
school-days, his stay of seven years at the University, his 
retirement for further study to his father's country home in 
Horton, and his travels on the Continent. The period is 
one of preparation for his chosen profession of poet. To it 
belong his lyrical poems, all but a few sonnets, and the dra- 
matic poems. Arcades and Comus. 

During the second period, 1639-1660, he laid aside poetry 
for prose. An ardent advocate of the Puritan cause, he wrote, 
on the outbreak of civil war, a series of tracts in behalf of po- 
Utical and religious liberty, served the Puritan Commonwealth 
as Latin Secretary, and was its appointed defender against 
the attacks directed against it by the exiled Royalists. 

In the third period, 1660-1674, he lived, after the down- 
fall of the Commonwealth, in retirement, and returned to 
his proper vocation, poetry. Apart from a few prose works 
of minor importance, he was engaged during this period upon 
the great epics, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, and the 
drama, Samson Agonistes, upon which his fame chiefly rests. 

Gracious influences surrounded Milton from childhood. 
John Milton, his father, was a man of culture, a lover of learn- 
ing and literature, and a musician of sufficient skill, though 
an amateur, to win some distinction as a composero He had 
become well-to-do as a scrivener, or law-stationer, and was 



xiv MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

able, as he was eager, to give the most gifted of his children 
every advantage. Milton early showed promise as a student. 
He was prepared for the University by private tutors and at 
St. Paul's School, entered Christ's College, Cambridge, at 
the age of seventeen, remained there seven years, and received 
successively the Bachelor's and the Master's degrees. 

As a mere lad in college, endowed as he was with excep- 
tional strength of intellect and will, he seems to have displayed 
the independence of character arid consciousness of supe- 
riority which marked him through life and which rendered 
him impatient of control and intolerant in judgment. In 
any one less serious and sincere, less eager and able to attain 
the highest excellence, his self-sufficiency and his tendency to 
find fault with the moral standards of others would have been 
still graver defects. We cannot, however, convict him of mere 
vanity and priggishness. He truly possessed, as he wrote 
later of himself in reference to his college days, "a certain 
niceness [i. e., fastidiousness] of nature, an honest haughtiness 
and self-esteem of what I was or what I might be (which let 
envy call pride), and lastly that modesty whereof . . . though 
not in the title-page, yet here I may be excused to make some 
becoming profession." He was certainly an unusual student 
— not so much in the assurance with which he criticised, in 
part justly, the disciphne and teaching of the college authori- 
ties, and stiJl more the manners and morals of his fellow- 
students, who gave him the mocking title of "Lady," but in 
the fact that he had already set before himself a definite am- 
bition, to be a poet and write on the highest themes, and had 
marked out for himself the means to attain it. After some 
little friction he found a way to lead his own life and win the 
full measure of profit he desired. An idea may be gained of 
the character and aim of his studies from his retrospect of 
his life at the University. He speaks of reading in the "grave 
orators" and historians and poets, and of the necessity he felt, 
in that in these evil and good were blended, of exercising care 
in taking what was good and leaving what was unworthy. It 
was not long after, he says, that he was confirmed in the opin- 



INTRODUCTION xv 

ion "that he who would not be frustrate of his hope to write 
well hereafter in laudable things ought himself to be a true 
poem, that is, a composition and pattern of the best and hon- 
orablest things; not presuming to sing high praises of heroic 
men or famous cities, unless he have in himself the experi- 
ence and the practice of all that which is praiseworthy." 
Upon this lofty aim he concentrated himself, unheeding 
what standards might satisfy others or what prizes they might 
seek to gain — striving, with increasing knowledge, to maintain 
in his personal conduct ever loftifer ideals of virtue, and, in 
his studies, bending every effort not merely to survey, but to 
make his own, in absolute conquest, whatever might contribute 
to those ideals in ancient and modern literatures, history, 
philosophy, and theology, with the intent to render a part of 
himself whatever they might teach him of truth, eloquence, 
and poetry. Nor did he make the mistake of centring his 
life in books to the exclusion of other things important in 
their place. Naturally well-formed and graceful — notably 
handsome, it may be added, as well — he was careful to perfect 
himself in the arts and accomplishments, such as horseman- 
ship and fencing, appropriate to a gentleman. 

The verse he wrote while at the University, even allowing 
for later careful revision, displays abundant promise. More 
particularly are to be noted the ode. On the Morning of Christ's 
Nativity, At a Solemn Music, On Shakespeare, and the son- 
net On His Having Arrived at the Age of Twenty-three. 

It had been his father's hope that Milton would take orders 
in the Established Church, but, before he left the University, 
he had decided this to be impossible. All his sympathies 
were with the Puritan movement, which had been slowly 
gathering strength since the preceding century and in a few 
years was to lead to civil war. The Church in England 
after the Reformation was in law a national church, and in- 
cluded nominally every subject of the throne, its constituted 
head. Many, however, refused allegiance to it, being op- 
posed to its doctrines or practice in various ways; indeed, 
among its professed members, there were wide differences of 



xvi MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

opinion. So, in time, there arose, within and without the 
Church, the Puritan party. 

Properly, at the outset, the term Puritan might apply to 
any one who made seriousness and sobriety of life a ruling 
principle, and regarded with disapproval the worldliness and 
laxity of life, with much that was scandalously evil, which 
characterized the Court circle in general and not a few of the 
bishops and clergy. More narrowly the term became identi- 
fied with those who objected to doctrines or practices retained 
in the Church which they considered as "Popish," who be- 
lieved that the Sabbath should be rigidly observed throughout 
as a day of prayer and meditation and not used in part as a 
holiday for recreation and merrymaking, and who insisted 
that the teachings of the Bible should be the sole rule and guide 
to the exclusion of the traditions of the Church. Some, 
moreover, did not believe in the union of the Church and 
State, and an important body, the Presbyterians, objected to 
the clerical orders, especially that of bishops, as not. in ac- 
cordance with the practice of the primitive church as estab- 
lished by Christ. Others wholly abjured the doctrine and 
authority of the Established Church — the so-called Inde- 
pendents, among whom the Baptists formed a notable body, 
with many minor sects, over a hundred, it is said, in the time 
of the Commonwealth. Even from this brief outline it is plain 
what a variety of opinions and shades of opinion upon a host 
of religious and political questions individual Puritans rep- 
resented. God-fearing and God-seeking men there were on 
both sides. Also, on the other hand, many among the non- 
Puritans were utterly self-seeking and unprincipled, and 
many among the Puritans were ignorant and intolerant 
bigots and fanatics, wholly wild and unreasonable. 

It is important to remember that the struggle originally 
was not between a Church party on the one hand and a 
Puritan party on the other; it went oh within the Church 
itself. On one side within the Church were the " Prelatists," 
so called as led by the bishops, who, either through honest 
belief or motives of selfish interest, used every means, includ- 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

ing cruel persecution, to uphold the authority of the Church 
against what they termed unlicensed liberty of the individual 
conscience, and to maintain the clerical orders with their 
rights and privileges and the connection of Church and State, 
on which the Church's wealth and poHtical power depended. 
On the other side, within the Church as well as without, were 
the Puritans, not necessarily opposed, many of them, in their 
individual beliefs to Church doctrine or practice in general, 
but maintaining the right of individual liberty of conscience, 
and (a large part of them) opposing the order of bishops and 
in particular condemning the manner of life of many of the 
adherents of the Prelatical party. Milton's father was a 
Puritan Churchman — he had been disinherited for becom- 
ing a Protestant. So also by inheritance was Milton, but, 
at the time he was at the University, the struggle between 
the two parties had for long been sharp and bitter, and it was 
the selfish worldliness, greed, tyranny, and arrogance of the 
Prelatical party, their injustice and cruelty in the repression 
of the Puritans, that made it impossible for him to take orders. 
He had been "church-outed," he said, "by the prelates." 
Later he was to break with all the organized religious bodies 
of his time. 

On leaving the University, Milton went to his father's 
house in Horton in the midst of lovely country not far from 
London. His father did not press the question of a pro- 
fession, and for five years he continued the course of study 
and meditation he had marked out for himself at the Uni- 
versity. The time of preparation was long, but the fruits of 
it may be seen in the breadth and accuracy of his scholarship, 
the wealth of material he gathered for his poetry, the ex- 
quisite sensitiveness of his taste, and that perfected power of 
appreciating the just values and relations of things which con- 
stitutes culture. He held his purpose clear before him — to be 
a poet and sing. the loftiest themes — and spared no labor, re- 
lieving his close study by walks and music and occasional 
visits to London to procure books. Toward the close of 
the five years he became a little impatient of his long seclu- 



xviii MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

sion, but even then did not believe himself ready. To Charles 
Diodati, the dearly beloved friend of his school-days, he wrote, 
"Hear me, my Diodati, and suffer me for a moment to speak 
without blushing in a more lofty strain. Do you ask what I 
am meditating? By the help of Heaven, an immortality of 
fame. But what am I doing ? irrepocpvC}, I am letting my 
wings grow and preparing to fly; but my Pegasus has not 
feather enough to soar aloft in the fields of air." Finally in 
1638 he left Horton for the Continent with the special object 
of visiting Italy. His charm of manner and scholarly at- 
tainments caused him to be received with marked distinction 
in Paris, Florence, Rome, and Naples. News of the polit- 
ical situation in England cut short his travels; he thought it 
base to be travelling for pleasure when his fellow-country- 
men were contending for their liberty. Returning in 1639, 
he took lodgings in London, later leasing a comfortable house 
with a garden in Aldersgate Street. Here the first period of 
his lif ' closes. While at Horton he had composed L' Allegro 
and It ^enseroso, Arcades, Comus, and Lycidas. In Italy 
he wrote his Italian sonnets and a Latin poem addressed to 
the Italian patron of learning and letters, Manso. Upon his 
return he wrote an elegiac poem in Latin on the death of his 
friend Diodati. Now, save for a few sonnets, he was to bid 
farewell to poetry for nearly twenty years. 

Settled in London, Milton undertook the teaching of his 
two nephews. Several other pupils were in time added, 
forming a small school. His real occupation, however, was 
with the religious and political controversy which was en- 
gaging all men's minds. The burning question of the mo- 
ment was the form of church government which should pre- 
vail in the Established Church. Twice the King had sent 
armies into Presbyterian Scotland and had been repulsed. 
Between these two campaigns he had convened Parliament 
to obtain money, had been presented instead with a petition 
for the redress of grievances, and had ordered its dissolution. 
This Parliament, because of its short session, is called the 
"Short Parliament." Failing in his second campaign, he 



INTRODUCTION xix 

convoked what is termed from its long session the "Long 
Parhament." Milton at once lent his aid in opposition to 
Episcopacy. His series of pamphlets, four in all, appeared 
in 1641, 1642. In 1643 he surprised his friends by suddenly 
marrying a young girl belonging to a Royalist family, Mary 
Powell. After little more than a month she left him and they 
remained separated for two years, when they were reunited. 
She died in 1653 or 1654, leaving three daughters. Milton's 
separation from his wife led to his writing, in 1643-1645, 
four pamphlets in behalf of divorce. In 1644 he published 
his most notable prose work, the Areopagitica, a plea for the 
liberty of unlicensed printing, that is, for a free press. In the 
same year appeared a tractate. On Education, and, in 1645, 
the first edition of his poems. He was also engaged at inter- 
vals upon a history of England, not completed till much 
later; and he composed at various times a few sonnets. 

An important change in his life came in the year 1649. 
For seven years war had been waged between the JP.'^yalists 
and the Parliamentary forces. It ceased for a time with the 
King's capture by the Scotch allies. A part of the Parlia- 
mentary party favored the establishment of a State Church 
under the Presbyterian form of government without recognition 
of the Independents. Others, including Cromwell and the 
army, favored, and were successful in obtaining, entire Uberty 
of conscience and worship. After fruitless negotiations, an 
alliance between the King and the Scots led to a renewal of 
civil war, the capture of the King by the Parliamentary army, 
and finally, in 1649, his trial and execution. There were many, 
even among those opposed to the King, who regarded this act 
with horror. Milton was not one of these; he defended and 
justified it in his Tenure of Kings and Magistrates. His abil- 
ity as a controversialist, as well as his learning and scholar- 
ship, led to his appointment as Latin Secretary to the Com- 
mittee of Foreign Affairs. In addition to purely secretarial 
duties, he answered attacks upon the new Commonwealth. 
The Eikon Basilike ("Royal Image"), designed to arouse pity 
and indignation for the King's death and passing for a time 



XX MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

as the work of the King himself, Milton met with a tractate 
entitled Eikonoklastes ("The Image Breaker"). In the fol- 
lowing year, Salmasius of Leyden, perhaps the most notable 
scholar of the day, put forth, under commission of the Royalists 
in exile, his Defensio Regia. Milton, in his Pro Populo 
Anglicano and a Defensio Secunda, published after his op- 
ponent's death, disposed of Salmasius and those who had 
taken the place of Salmasius in the controversy with such ef- 
fectiveness that Europe was astonished alike by his command 
of Latin and his powers of argument and invective. From 
childhood Milton's eyesight had been weakened by assiduous 
study. In spite of the warning conveyed by his losing the use 
of one eye, he persisted in his labors for the Commonwealth, 
and in 1652 had become totally blind. He still held his post 
as Secretary with the aid of an assistant, until, with the year 
1660, came the Restoration and the ruin of the cause he had 
toiled to uphold. Here his second period closes. 

Critics are at one in deploring Milton's devotion during 
nearly twenty years to controversial writing. It was a loss to 
poetry in any case, and, except for the Areopagitica, a truly 
noble work, together with scattered passages of genuine ele- 
vation and eloquence in other works, one might well wish the 
prose works of this period had never been written. Milton 
was inspired by a true passion for liberty, but, unfortunately, 
he was constantly preoccupied in meeting vile personal abuse 
with abuse as vile. It seems almost incredible that so naturally 
fine a nature should have descended to such offensive person- 
alities and scurrilities as he employed. The fact displays, 
perhaps, the violent extremes to which a sensitive and refined 
spirit may be driven in forcing itself to do what is naturally ahen 
to its temperament and disposition. 

It must have seemed as if the Restoration spelled irrevoca- 
ble disaster to the poet. But, blind tTiough he was, ruined 
in fortune as a political outlaw, in danger of his life and in 
hiding till the Act of Indemnity left him safe, none the less no 
event could have been more fortunate both for him and for the 
world. Critics agree that his twenty years of controversy left 
Milton narrowed and hardened, and with his natural tendency 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

to harshness and intolerance increased. We may not say, 
however, that it lessened the great powers that were now to 
justify themselves in transcendent poetic achievement. Al- 
ready in 1642 the first conception of Paradise Lost had appeared 
among a number of his notes of subjects for dramas and poems. 
The poet's intention then seems to have been to treat this sub- 
ject in dramatic form, and he appears to have then actually 
begun such a drama. He took up the theme again in the form 
of an epic in 1658, completed it in 1665, and published it in 
1667. The poet's Quaker friend, Elwood, who was the first 
to read it, suggested by an inquiry its continuation in Paradise 
Regained, which was pubhshed in 1671. With it was published 
Samson Agonistes, a play in which the poet speaks of him- 
self under the guise of the bUnded Samson, and which is 
adjudged to approach more nearly than any other work in Eng- 
lish to the simplicity and sublimity of Greek tragedy. Sev- 
eral prose works belong also to this period— the History of 
Britain, begun long before, a pamphlet on True Religion, 
Heresy, Schism, and Toleration, not free from Milton's own 
intolerance, a History of Muscovy, a Latin grammar, a treatise 
in Latin on logic, and an extended exposition, also in Latin, 
of Christian doctrine. 

Milton's life during this third period was fairly peaceful, 
despite the insubordination of his daughters, on whom he laid 
tasks beyond their ability in the help he required of them in 
his writing — they even, it is said, sold his books secretly to get 
money for their needs — with the result, finally, that they were 
sent away to shift for themselves. A second marriage, con- 
tracted in 1656, had lasted only two years ; he married a third 
time in 1663. His days were quietly spent in reading and dic- 
tation, in caring for his garden, and in the enjoyment of music, 
to which he was devoted throughout his life, either playing him- 
self on the organ or listening to his wife singing. He had friends, 
and visitors were drawn to his house by his reputation for learn- 
ing and through admiration for his poetry. He died in 1674, 
and was buried in St. Giles' Church, Cripplegate, London, 
beside his father. 



jcxii MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 



IL— THE POETRY OF MILTON 

Like all great poets, Milton was indebted in part to the in- 
fluences of his time, in part to the instinctive leadings of his 
individual genius and temperament. His first period lies 
within the close of the Elizabethan era, and his verse evidences 
his close study of its poets, greater and less. Of these Spenser, 
like himself Puritan and interpreter of ideals of virtue in poetry, 
was his acknowledged master, and to Shakespeare — especially 
in the use of the felicitous phrase, forming a poem in itself — his 
debt was not small. But more important than such inspiration 
is the fact that he, himself, is Elizabethan, and displays the 
same influences (working, moreover, directly within him, not 
through others) that made the Elizabethan period so great. 
He has been called the last of the Elizabethans, and with truth, 
if his relations to his age are rightly understood. 

One main influence in the Elizabethan period was the Renais- 
sance, and the new conceptions of life, scholarship, philosophy, 
and literature it brought to England from France and Spain, 
but most of all from Italy, where earliest and most fully the 
change from mediaeval habits of thought, summed under the 
term, were worked out. These new conceptions opened a 
new world of opportunity, and, in their full fruition in Eng- 
land toward the close of the sixteenth century, created men of 
genius in such array as no other period in any country has 
equalled, drawing them from every station of life. The liter- 
ature of the Elizabethan period is characterized by its appar- 
ently exhaustless creative energy, its delight in the new beauty 
it sought for, found, and expressed, its extension of the range 
of poetic conceptions and forms, its spontaneity and freshness. 
This spirit and temper in literature, centring in the eager 
search for and delight in the expression of new beauty, is known 
by the term "romantic." Milton's inspiration, as we shall 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

see in a moment, was romantic in this sense. On the o'ther 
hand, we must recall that Milton's life extended to 1674. Dur- 
ing his lifetime, a change was coming over poetry. The age 
had become more serious and reflective under the influence of 
Puritanism and the awakening interest in scientific thought. 
Milton's contemporaries, like him, drew inspiration from their 
great forerunners; but a slackening of poetic energy can be 
perceived, the verse, while often of great beauty, is of a more 
grave and sober tone, more self-conscious, and there is a ten- 
dency to model it on a set pattern. At the close of the century 
poetry had become in general rhetorical; it is made to con- 
form to what has grown to be the accepted taste of the time and 
not a fresh image and form* of beauty conceived in th% poet's 
mind. Poetry of this marked tendency is called "dUssical*," 
as if patterned on a model held to be of classical excellence. It 
seeks to appeal to the reader by treating with superior distinc- 
tion subjects within a special range which are dictated by the 
taste of the time as poetic, and in a special form demanded by 
that taste. In brief, the taste of the time becomes the test of 
poetic excellence, not the poet's instinctive sense, freely exer- 
cised, of what is beautiful. 

It is because Milton livjed while this change was going on, 
but is not affected by it, that he may truly be called the last of 
the Elizabethans. He was a true Elizabethan in that he was a 
law unto himself as regards his conception of the beauty proper 
to poetry. Still more, he was a true Elizabethan in searching out 
and discovering for himself new stores of poetic beauty. This 
he did, most notably, in his use of the poetry of the ancients, 
especially Latin poetry, which he had studied so ardently at 
school, at the University, and at Horton, during his period of 
preparation. Others before him, of course, his own master 
Spenser, for example, had drawn upon this poetry, and use of 
it is common enough in Elizabethan literature. But no one 
had studied it as he had done, or at least to such profit, with the 
set intent of writing worthily in English verse. Where others 
merely touched the surface and carried away an occasional 
phrase or image, he explore and made his own an immense 



xxiv MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

treasure. The world of classic literature is to him what Italian 
literature was to the earlier Elizabethans, a new world of beauty 
to be brought over into English verse. 

This was one main source of his verse. The Bible was an- 
other. If his deep piety constrained his reverence for the 
Scriptures, if his preoccupation with moral and religious ideals 
led him to its study and use, by no means any the less was his 
appreciation of the beauty of its sublime conceptions, its 
graphic imagery, the verbal felicity of the English version 
whose phrases are so often transferred bodily to his lines. 

A point of the greatest importance in this connection is the 
fact that in the common appeal to him of classic literature and 
of the Scriptures through the element of poetic beauty, the two 
became as if one to him. That is why he fails to feel a difference 
in kind between Hebrew and Christian ideas and conceptions 
and classical ideas and conceptions. He does not hesitate to 
fuse them together, to pass from one to the other, seemingly 
unconsciously, in his verse, in a way that would be quite im- 
possible to-day. This failure to feel unlikeness in kind, this 
willingness to bring together things dissimilar, so long as each 
in its kind contributes to the poetic purpose in hand, is essen- 
tially characteristic of the Renaissance. 

If we see clearly that Milton was essentially an Elizabethan, 
it is in the next place important to remember that he desired 
to perfect himself as poet that he might express moral ideas, 
set forth ideals of virtue in his verse. Moral ideas are, of course, 
wholly suitable themes for poetry, though no one should make 
the mistake common enough though so evident, of thinking that 
literature or any other art exists or should exist for, or that ex- 
cellence therein is bound up with, the expression of moral ideas. 
Most surely poetry may express moral ideas, but it must do 
this in a manner proper to poetry, or the result is not poetry 
but something else. No poet can concern himself with the 
expression of moral ideas that need didactic treatment, the 
method of the teacher, exposition, argument, and exhortation, 
without endangering the quality of his poetry. With Milton 
the moral purpose is as constantly in mind as the artistic. In 



INTRODUCTION xxv 

his verse from Comus through the great epics to Samson Ago- 
nistes appear innumerable passages in which the moral purpose 
is at variance with his instinctive poetic inspiration. This is 
one reason, together with the studied perfection of his style 
and its chastened severity due to his study of the ancients, 
why many find fault with his poetry as being rhetorical. Rhe- 
torical it seldom or never is in a bad sense. His emotional sen^ 
sitiveness to beauty, his exquisite taste, the divine energy of his 
genius, his exaltation of vision, lift even passages of argument 
and moralizing above the. plane of rhetoric and insure them, as 
by a miracle, some measure of the quality of magic that be- 
longs to the highest poetry. 

In considering the relation of Milton's themes, his subject 
matter, to the form of its expression, it may be noted that his 
Elizabethan passion -for beauty was regulated and controlled 
by his study of the classics, and often to greater or' less extent 
chilled and obstructed by didacticism. It is also necessary 
to point out, as Bagehot and others have done, that Milton's 
mind was not fruitful in varied thought and reflection. In 
Shakespeare, and in many poets inferior to Milton, the centratl 
theme, the character of the speaker as dramatically conceived 
by the poet, a special incident in hand, suggestions of v^-ious 
sorts, inspire thoughts that possess independent value and ap- 
peal apart from their relation to the immediate theme. In 
Milton there is little or nothing of this. His mind concentrated 
itself upon a single idea, and this is repeated and reinforced, 
unattended by associated or suggested thoughts. But on the 
other hand he employs in the expression of the single idea a 
multiplicity -oi imagery and illustration, drawing upon the 
seemingly exhaustless stores of his reading and observation. 
The poems in this volume display this characteristic; to it 
rather 4;han to lack, of dramatic power may be referred his 
weakness in characterization both in the epics and in Samson 
Agonistes; his prose works also are all variations, without ad- 
vance and development, upon single themes. In the words of 
Bagehot, "We have a superficial complexity in illustration and 
imagery and metaphor, and in contrast with it we observe a 



xxvi MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

latent simplicity of idea, an almost rude strength of concep- 
tion. The underlying thoughts are few, though the flowers on 
the surface are so many." 

Whence, we may next ask, did Milton derive this wealth of 
imagery and illustration ? How far was he indebted to nature 
and life directly, how far to books? No one can doubt that 
Milton was observant of the world about him, that he loved 
and drew from nature, though, like other seventeenth-century 
poets, the nature he preferred was one subdued to a kindly 
relation with man's life — flowers, trees in smooth meadows, 
the gently gliding stream, a smiling countryside. He was not 
a close student of individual facts, and lacks the intimate 
touches that show close sympathetic observation. In brief, 
it is evident that whatever his inclination or ability to observe 
facts in human life or in nature directly, the main source of his 
poetic material was derived from books. His indebtedness in 
words, phrases, allusions, images, to his predecessors in Eng- 
lish verse, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Fletcher, Browne, 
Quarles, Drayton, and many another, and in incalculable 
measure to the Latin and Greek poets he studied so assidu- 
ously, appears everywhere. But, be it carefully noted, this is 
not a mere borrowing, a bodily transference to his verse of 
what served his purpose. In all cases he is guided by his in- 
fallible perception of truth and beauty, and he makes what he 
takes his own, giving it a new, individual, and imperishable 
beauty of form and setting. No doubt, as Bagehot has said, 
he was often unaware at the moment, so stored was his mind with 
the fruits of his reading, that he was using what in some form 
had been used before. Moreover, beautiful images and allu- 
sions wholly original with him are also innumerable. 

Before summing up the qualities of Milton's verse, a word 
is necessary in regard to its metrical structure. It is of prime 
importance to remember that it is in every respect true English 
verse, idiomatic in its observance, even where most individual 
and characteristic, of English traditions. It might be supposed 
that Milton, in his writing of verse, might have been influenced 
to model it in some way upon that of the classic poets he studied 



INTRODUCTION xxvii 

so closely, just as he now and again introduces a Latin locution 
into his English diction. But he does not — the balance and 
movement of his blank-verse line may have caught something 
from classic verse, but the metre is Enghsh. Individual pe- 
culiarities there are in his verse, but these are not departures 
from English tradition — they are his own consciously adopted 
licenses in following out that tradition. How essentially 
English his verse is may be seen in the fact that his blank-verse 
line not infrequently has only four chief accents, a form of line 
traceable back to the Old English alliterative long line. 

Milton's place in English literature and in the literature of 
the world is due to two causes of somewhat different kind. 
The first is the sustained elevation of poetic quality in his verse, 
both epic and lyric, notable even where a didactic purpose is 
present — an elevation due at once to energy of inspiration, re- 
finement of critical taste, and the amassed riches of his reading. 
It has often been said that if he had written nothing but the 
shorter poems of his first period, he would have taken a place in 
the first rank of English poets. His indebtedness to the past, 
his aspiration to emulate or to transcend its worthiest poetry, 
his scrupulous loyalty to the highest ideals of taste, would by 
themselves have insured his verse a high place in the literature 
of the world; but also, in addition, he essayed in Paradise Lost 
and in Paradise Regained at once the most sublime and the 
most difficult themes possible, the Fall and Redemption of 
Man. To this task, in addition to his poetic genius and train- 
ing, he brought the inspiration of the loftiest faith and moral 
purpose, impHcit trust in his own powers, and a concentration 
of will in which was bound up the anticipations of a lifetime. 
Matured as he was within the influences of the Renaissance, 
he never dreamed of any inartistic incongruity in combining 
material of whatever kind that lay to his hand, biblical and 
classical. Christian and pagan, mythical or drawn from the 
advanced scientific thought of his day. Nor did he hesitate, 
as a poet of to-day would hesitate, to picture the affairs of heaven 
as conducted like those of earth, in a way that sometimes makes 
possible the cheap ridicule of the unhistoric and irreverent 



xxviii MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

critic. But, despite incongruities incidental to these causes, 
despite the heavy burden of his didactic purpose, despite his 
probable deficiency in dramatic ability, he lifts his narrative 
not merely to the ideal elevation of the epic, but to a sublimity 
so far transcending the conceptions of ordinary men as to make 
it seem veritably an inspired record of what he describes, 
"things unattempted yet in prose or rime." And here, three 
hundred years after Milton's birth, it is worth while for a mo- 
ment to touch upon the question whether, as has been asserted, 
Milton has ever truly laid hold upon the popular heart. As 
criticism, such an assertion is in one sense meaningless. Such 
tests do not apply in such a case. An achievement like Mil- 
ton's, time can no more touch than it can the pinnacles of the 
mountain or the cathedral and its towers — save with the universal 
decay which is the death of time — and, like the abbeys of Eng- 
land, Nature "grants to it an equal date with Andes and with 
Ararat." But, in itself, the assertion is not true. Milton's fame 
is not alone due to the tributes of historians, the verdicts of 
critics, the homage of brother-poets — "third among the sons of 
light," "God-gifted organ-voice of England," — or to the fealty 
alone of the scholarly and "cultured" class. The. old story 
that he was not honored in his own time is fiction. Since that 
time he has always had in all classes those who made him their 
special poet, ])recisely in the sense in which we speak of Shake- 
speare or Burns or Longfellow as close to the popular heart. 
In England he has as j^oet commanded a veneration that links 
his name with Shakespeare's even among those to whom Mil- 
ton the man was virtually a regicide. In this country, when 
he finally became known, his works were placed beside the 
Bible alike in Puritan New England, in Quaker Pennsyl- 
vania, and in the South, and it was a common thing three 
generations ago for children or their elders to commit long 
passages from the epics, even whole books, to memory. And 
possibly it might surprise some persons who think of Milton 
merely as a classic, honored but unread, could they but know 
how many people — unliterary people — still set precious store by 
him to-dav. 



INTRODUCTION xxix 

If, however, many persons can pay only an intellectual tribute 
to the great epics, not one of real liking, all must do honor to the 
shorter poems included in this volume. What may the study 
of these poems mean to us to-day ? They are set for examina- 
tion, and are to be studied, because they are poems of a special 
beauty, of a kind to help us to understand what true poetry is 
and what it may mean to those who learn to care for it. There 
are many persons in the world who have never learned what 
poetry may mean to them, and who live lives so much the poorer 
for lack of the pleasure it may bring. There are many so igno- 
rant as to despise it as something only unpractical people care 
for, as something likely to unfit one to be sensible and practical — 
a wholly mistaken and absurd notion. A love for poetry is a 
lifelong gain. Like a love for music or painting, or, in their 
place, one or another bodily accomplishment, some trouble 
must be taken to attain it. And poems like these help one to 
a true appreciation of poetic beauty. Just as Milton trained 
his taste by the study of English and classic poets to an 
exquisite sensitiveness of perception, so may we to-day train 
and refine ours by the study of the verse in which his perfected 
taste found expression. 

One or two practical suggestions may be made. In the 
case of each poem, first read the special introduction given 
in the notes. Then read the poem itself throughout before 
studying it in detail. Read it aloud, for no good poetry is 
meant for the eye alone; the mental ear in any case — much 
better the physical ear — should hear it. Then turn to the study 
of the poem line by line, making sure that each image and allu- 
sion is understood, and all that Milton intended it -to convey. 
The notes supply the necessary information, and here a word of 
warning is necessary. It is not desirable to memorize the notes. 
If, for example, it is pointed out that the poet is indebted to 
some predecessor in a particular passage, the fact is of impor- 
tance only in illustration of his frequent use of others and his 
extraordinary gift of making what he took his own. This does 
not, of course, apply to many of the classic allusions, espe- 
cially in mythology, for these are often stock poetic allusions 



XXX MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

that should be famiUar to every one; so also the meaning of 
unfamiliar words, such as are part of the vocabulary of poetry, 
should be learned. But, in every case, it is to be remembered 
that these things are all of secondary and minor importance as 
compared with clearly understanding the verse and learning to 
care for its beauty of meaning and sound. It is this which is 
best worth while — that Milton may help us to know and to care 
for all good poetry. 



MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 



MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

I 

ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S 
NATIVITY 



This is the month, and this the happy morn, 

Wherein the Son of Heaven's eternal King, 

Of wedded maid and virgin mother born. 

Our great redemption from above did bring; 

For so the holy sages once did sing, 5 

That he our deadly forfeit should release, 
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace. 

II 

That glorious form, that light unsufferable, 
And that far-beaming blaze of majesty, 

Wherewith he wont at Heaven's high council-table lo 

To sit the midst of Trinal Unity, 
He laid aside; and, here with us to be. 
Forsook the courts of everlasting day. 
And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay. 

3 



4 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

III 

Say, Heavenly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein 15 

Afford a present to the Infant God? 

Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain. 

To welcome him to this his new abode, 

Now while the Heaven, by the Sun's team untrod. 

Hath took no print of the approaching light, 20 

And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright ? 



IV 

See how from far upon the eastern road 

The star-led wizards haste with odors sweet! 

O run, prevent them with thy humble ode. 

And lay it lowly at his blessed feet; 25 

Have thou the honor first thy Lord to greet. 

And join thy voice unto the angel choir. 
From out his secret altar touched with hallowed fire. 



The Hymn 



It was the winter wild. 

While the Heaven-born Child 30 

All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies; 
Nature, in awe, to him 
Had doffed her gaudy trim. 

With her great master so to sympathize; 
It was no season then for her 35 

To wanton with the Sun, her lusty paramour. 



CHRIST'S NATIVITY 



Only with speeches fair 
She woos the gentle air 

To hide her guilty front with innocent snow, 
And on her naked shame, 40 

Pollute with sinful blame, 

Th^ saintly veil of maiden white to throw — 
Confounded, that her Maker's eyes 
Should look so near upon her foul deformities. 



Ill 

But he, her fears to cease, 45 

Sent down the meek-eyed Peace; 

She, crowned with ohve green, came softly sliding 
Down through the turning sphere. 
His ready harbinger, 

With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing, 50 

And, waving wide her myrtle wand. 
She strikes a universal peace through sea and land. 



IV 

No war, or battle's sound. 
Was heard the world around; 

The idle spear and shield were high uphung; 55 

The hooked chariot stood 
Unstained with hostile blood; 

The trumpet spake not to the armed throng; 
And kings sat still with awful eye, 
As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. 60 



6 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

V 

But peaceful was the night 
Wherein the Prince of Light . 

His reign of peace upon the earth began. 
The winds, with wonder whist, 
Smoothly the waters kissed, 65 

Whispering new joys to the mild ocean. 
Who now hath quite forgot to rave, 
While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave. 

VI 

The stars, with deep amaze, 

Stand fixed in steadfast gaze, 70 

Bending one way their precious influence. 
And will not take their flight. 
For all the morning light. 

Or Lucifer that often warned them thence, 
But in their gUmmering orbs did glow, 75 

Until their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go. 

VII 

And, though the shady gloom 
Had given day her room, 

The Sun himself withheld his wonted speed, 
And hid his head for shame, 80 

As his inferior flame 

The new-enlightened world no more should need; 
He saw a greater Sun appear 
Than his bright throne or burning axletree could bear. 



CHRIST'S NATIVITY 7 

VIII 

The shepherds on the lawn, • 85 

Or ere the point of dawn, 

Sat simply chatting in a rustic row. 
Full little thought they than 
That the mighty Pan 

Was kindly come to live with them below; 90 

Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep, 
Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep, 

IX 

When such music sweet 
Their hearts and ears did greet 

As never was by mortal finger strook, 95 

Divinely-warbled voice 
Answering the stringed noise, 

As all their souls in blissful rapture took; 
The air, such pleasure loath to lose. 
With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly close. lOO 



Nature, that heard such sound 
Beneath the hollow round 

Of Cynthia's seat the airy region thrilling, 
Now was almost won 
To think her part was done, 105 

And that her reign had here its last fulfilling; 
She knew such harmony alone 
Could hold all heaven and earth in happier union. 



8 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

XI 

At last surrounds their sight 

A globe of circular light, no 

That with long beams the shamefaced Night arrayed ; 
The helmed Cherubim, 
The sworded Seraphim 

Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displayed, 
Harping in loud and solemn choir, 115 

With unexpressive notes, to Heaven's new-born Heir. 

XII 

Such music (as 'tis said) 
Before was never made. 

But when of old the Sons of Morning sung, 
While the Creator great 120 

His constellations set, 

And the well-balanced world on hinges hung, 
And cast the dark foundations deep. 
And bid the weltering waves their oozy channel keep. 

XIII 

Ring out, ye crystal spheres, 125 

Once bless our human ears. 

If ye have power to touch our senses so; 
And let your silver chime 
Move in melodious time, 

And let the base of Heaven's deep organ blow; 130 

And with your ninefold harmony 
Make up full consort to the angelic symphony. 



CHRIST'S NATIVITY 9 

XIV 

For, if such holy song 
Enwrap our fancy long, 

Time will run back and fetch the Age of Gold; i35 

And speckled Vanity 
Will sicken soon and die. 

And leprous Sin will melt from earthly mould; 
And Hell itself will pass away, 
And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day. 140 

XV 

Yea, Truth and Justice then 
Will down return to men, 

Orbed in a rainbow, and, like glories wearing, 
Mercy will sit between, 
Throned in celestial sheen, 145 

With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering; 
And Heaven, as at some festival, 
Will open wide the gates of her high palace-hall. 

XVI 

But wisest Fate says no. 

This must not yet be so; 150 

The Babe lies yet in smiling infancy 
That on the bitter cross 
Must redeem our loss. 

So both himself and us to glorify; 
Yet first, to those ychained in sleep, 155 

The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the 
deep. 



10 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

XVII 

With such a horrid clang 
As on Mount Sinai rang, 

While the red fire and smouldering clouds outbrake; 
The aged Earth, aghast, 160 

With terror of that blast, 

Shall from the surface to the centre shake, 
When at the world's last session 
The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread his throne. 

XVIII 

And then at last our bliss 165 

Full and perfect is, 

But now begins; for, from this happy day, 
The Old Dragon under ground. 
In straiter limits bound, 

Not half so far casts his usurped sway, 170 

And, wroth to see his kingdom fail. 
Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail. 

XIX 

The oracles are dumb; 
No voice or hideous hum 

Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. 175 

Apollo from his shrine 
Can no more divine. 

With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. 
No nightly trance, or breathed spell, 
Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell. 180 



CHRIST'S NATIVITY 11 

XX 

The lonely mountains o'er, 
And the resounding shore, 

A voice of weeping heard and loud lament; 
From haunted spring, and dale 
Edged with poplar pale, i85 , 

The parting Genius is with sighing sent; 
With flower-inwoven tresses torn 
The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. 

XXI 

In consecrated earth, 

And on the holy hearth, 190 

The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint; 
In urns and altars round, 
A drear and dying sound 

Affrights the Flam ens at their service quaint; 
And the chill marble seems to sweat, 195 

While each peculiar power foregoes his wonted seat. 

XXII 

Peor and Baalim 
Forsake their temples dim. 

With that twice-battered god of Palestine; 
And mooned Ashtaroth, 200 

Heaven's queen and mother both. 

Now sits not girt with tapers' holy shine; 
The Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn; 
In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz 
mourn. 



12 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

XXIII 

And sullen Moloch, fled, 205 

Hath left in shadows dread 

His burning idol all of blackest hue; 
In vain with cymbals' ring 
They call the grisly king, 

In dismal dance about the furnace blue; 210 

The brutish gods of Nile as fast, 
Isis and Orus and the dog Anubis, haste. 

XXIV 

Nor is Osiris seen 

In Memphian grove or green. 

Trampling the unshowered grass with lowings loud, 215 
Nor can he be at rest 
Within his sacred chest; 

Nought but profoundest Hell can be his shroud; 
In vain, with timbrelled anthems dark. 
The sable-stoled sorcerers bear his worshipped ark. 220 

XXV 

He feels from Judah's land 
The dreaded Infant's hand; 

The rays of Bethlehem bhnd his dusky eyn; 
Nor all the gods beside 
Longer dare abide, 225 

Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine; 
Our Babe, to show his Godhead true, 
Can in his swaddhng bands control the damnM crew. 



CHRIST'S NATIVITY 13 

XXVI 

So, when the sun in bed, 

Curtained with cloudy red, 230 

Pillows his chin upon an orient wave, 
The flocking shadows pale 
Troop to the infernal jail, 

Each fettered ghost sHps to his several grave. 
And the yellow-skirted fays 235 

Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-loved maze. 

XXVII 

But seel the Virgin blest 
Hath laid her Babe to rest. 

Time is our tedious song should here have ending; 
Heaven's youngest-teemed star 240 

Hath fixed her poHshed car, 

Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending; 
And all about the courtly stable 
Bright-harnessed angels sit in order serviceable. 



II 

ON SHAKESPEARE, 1630 

What needs my Shakespeare for his honored bones 

The labor of an age in piled stones? 

Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid 

Under a star-ypointing pyramid ? 

Dear son of memory, great heir of fame, 5 

What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name? 

Thou in our wonder and astonishment 

Hast built thyself a livelong monument. 

For whilst to the shame of slow-endeavoring art 

Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart lo 

Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued book 

Those Delphic lines with deep impression took, 

Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving, 

Dost make us marble with too much conceiving; 

And so sepulchred in such pomp dost lie 15 

That kings for such a tomb would wish to die. 



14 



Ill 

ON HIS HAVING ARRIVED AT THE 
AGE OF TWENTY-THREE 

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, 
Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year! 
My hasting days fly on with full career, 

But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th. 

Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth 5 

That I to manhood am arrived so near. 
And inward ripeness doth much less appear, 

Than some more timely-happy spirits endu'th. 

Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow, 

It shall be still in strictest measure even lo 

To that same lot, however mean or high. 

Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven. 

All is, if I have grace to use it so, 

As ever in my great Task-master's eye. 



15 



IV 
L'ALLEGRO 

Hence, loathM Melancholy, 

Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born. 
In Stygian cave forlorn, 

'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights 
unholy ! 
Find out some uncouth cell, 5 

Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous 
wings. 
And the night-raven sings; 

There under ebon shades and low-browed rocks, 
As ragged as thy locks, 

In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell. lo 

But come, thou goddess fair and free, 
In heaven yclept Euphrosyne, 
And by men heart-easing Mirth, 
Whom lovely Venus at a birth 

With two sister Graces more 16 

To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore; 
Or whether (as some sager sing) 
The frolic wind that breathes the spring. 
Zephyr with Aurora playing. 

As he met her once a-Maying, 20 

There, on beds of violets blue, 
And fresh-blown roses washed in dew. 
Filled her with thee a daughter fair. 
So buxom, blithe, and debonair. 
16 



L'ALLEGRO 17 

Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee 25 

Jest and youthful JolHty, 

Quips, and Cranks, and wanton Wiles, 

Nods, and Becks, and wreathed Smiles, 

Such as hang on Hebe's cheek. 

And love to live in dimple sleek; so 

Sport that wrinkled Care derides, 

And Laughter holding both his sides. 

Come, and trip it as ye go 

On the light fantastic toe, 

And in thy right hand lead with thee 35 

The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty ; 

And, if I give thee honor due. 

Mirth, admit me of thy crew. 

To live with her, and live with thee, 

In unreproved pleasures free: ■ 40 

To hear the lark begin his flight. 

And singing startle the dull night 

From his watch-tower in the skies, 

Till the dappled dawn doth rise, 

Then to come, in spite of sorrow, 45 

And at my window bid good morrow 

Through the sweet-brier, or the vine, 

Or the twisted eglantine; 

While the cock, with lively din, 

Scatters the rear of darkness thin, 50 

And to the stack, or the barn-door, 

Stoutly struts his dames before: 

Oft listening how the hounds and horn 

Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn. 

From the side of some hoar hill, 55 

Through the high wood echoing shrill; 



18 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

Some time walking, not unseen, 

By hedge-row elms, on hillocks green, 

Right against the eastern gate. 

Where the great sun begins his state, 60 

Robed in flames and amber light, 

The clouds in thousand liveries dight; 

While the ploughman near at hand 

Whistles o'er the furrowed land, 

And the milkmaid singeth blithe, 65 

And the mower whets his scythe. 

And every shepherd tells his tale 

Under the hawthorn in the dale. 

Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures. 
Whilst the landskip round it measures; 70 

Russet lawns, and fallows gray. 
Where the nibbling flocks do stray; 
Mountains on whose barren breast 
The laboring clouds do often rest; 
Meadows trim with daisies pied, 75 

Shallow brooks and rivers wide. 
Towers and battlements it sees 
Bosomed high in tufted trees. 
Where perhaps some beauty lies, 
The cynosure of neighboring eyes. 80 

Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes 
From betwixt two aged oaks, 
Where Corydon and Thyrsis met 
Are at their savory dinner set 

Of herbs and other country messes, 85 

Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses; 
And then in haste her bower she leaves, 
With Thestylis to bind the sheaves; 



L'ALLEGRO 19 

Or, if the earlier season lead, 

To the tanned haycock in the mead. 90 

Sometimes with secure delight 
The upland hamlets will invite, 
When the merry bells ring round. 
And the jocund rebecks sound 
To many a youth and many a maid 95 

Dancing in the checkered shade. 
And young and old come forth to play 
On a sunshine holiday, 
Till the livelong daylight fail; 

Then to the spicy nut-brown ale, lOO 

With stories told of many a feat, 
How Faery Mab the junkets eat. 
She was pinched and pulled, she said. 
And he, by friar's lanthorn led, 
Tells how the drudging goblin sweat 105 

To earn his cream-bowl duly set, 
When in one night, ere glimpse of morn. 
His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn 
That ten day-laborers could not end. 
Then Ues him down, the lubber fiend, no 

And stretched out all the chimney's length. 
Basks at the fire his hairy strength; 
And crop-full out of doors he flings, 
Ere the first cock his matin rings. 
Thus done the tales, to bed they creep, ii5 

By whispering winds soon lulled asleep. 

Towered cities please us then. 
And the busy hum of men. 
Where throngs of knights and barons bold 
In weeds of peace high triumphs hold, 120 



20 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

With stores of ladies, whose bright eyes 

Rain influence, and judge the prize 

Of wit, or arms, while both contend 

To win her grace whom all commend. 

There let Hymen oft appear 125 

In saffron robe, with taper clear, 

And pomp, and feast, and revelry. 

With mask, and antique pageantry: 

Such sights as youthful poets dream 

On summer eves by haunted stream. 130 

Then to the well-trod stage anon, 

If Jonson's learned sock be on. 

Or sweetest Shakespeare, fancy's child. 

Warble his native wood-notes wild. 

And ever, against eating cares, 135 

Lap me in soft Lydian airs. 
Married to immortal verse. 
Such as the meeting soul may pierce, 
In notes with many a winding bout 
Of linked sweetness long drawn out, 140 

With wanton heed and giddy cunning, 
The melting voice through mazes running, 
Untwisting all the chains that tie 
The hidden soul of harmony. 

That Orpheus' self may heave his head 145 

From golden slumber on a bed 
Of heaped Elysian flowers, and hear 
Such strains as would have won the ear 
Of Pluto to have quite set free 
His half-regained Eurydice. 150 

These delights if thou canst give, 
Mirth, with thee I mean to live. 



V 
IL PENSEROSO 

Hence, vain deluding joys, 

The brood of folly without father bred! 
How little you bested. 

Or fill the fixM mind with all your toys I 
Dwell in some idle brain, 5 

And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess. 
As thick and numberless 

As the gay motes that people the sunbeams, 
Or likest hovering dreams, ' 

The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train. lo 

But hail, thou goddess sage and holy, 
Hail, divinest Melancholy! 
Whose saintly visage is too bright 
To hit the sense of human sight. 
And therefore to our weaker view 15 

O'erlaid with black, staid wisdom's hue; 
Black, but such as in esteem 
Prince Memnon's sister might beseem. 
Or that starred Ethiop queen that strove 
To set her beauty's praise above 20 

The sea-nymphs, and their powers offended. 
Yet thou art higher far descended. 
Thee bright-haired Vesta, long of yore. 
To solitary Saturn bore, — 
21 



22 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

His daughter she (in Saturn's reign, . 25 

Such mixture was not held a stain). 

Oft in glimmering bowers and glades 

He met her, and in secret shades 

Of woody Ida's inmost grove, 

While yet there was no fear of Jove. 30 

Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure, 
Sober, steadfast, and demure, 
All in a robe of darkest grain. 
Flowing with majestic train. 

And sable stole of cypress lawn 35 

Over thy decent shoulders drawn. 
Come, but keep thy wonted state, 
With even step, and musing gait. 
And looks commercing with the skies, 
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes. 40 

There held in holy passion still. 
Forget thyself to marble, till, 
With a sad leaden downward cast, 
Thou fix them on the earth as fast. 
And join with thee calm Peace, and Quiet, 45 

'■' V' Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet. 
And hears the Muses in a ring 
Aye round about Jove's altar sing. 
And add to these retired Leisure, 
That in trim gardens takes his pleasure; so 

But, first and chiefest, with thee bring 
Him that yon soars on golden wing. 
Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne. 
The cherub Contemplation; 

And the mute Silence hist along, 55 

'Less Philomel will deign a song, 



IL PENSEROSO 23 

In her sweetest, saddest plight, 

Smoothing the rugged brow of night, 

While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke 

Gently o'er th' accustomed oak. 60 

Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, 

Most musical, most melancholy! 

Thee, chantress, oft the woods among, 

I woo to hear thy even-song; 

And, missing thee, I walk unseen 65 

On the dry smooth-shaven green, 

To behold the wandering moon 

Riding near her highest noon, 

Like one that had been led astray 

Through the heaven's wide pathless way, 70 

And oft, as if her head she bowed, 

Stooping through a fleecy cloud. 

Oft, on a plat of rising ground, 

I hear the far-off curfew sound, 

Over some wide-watered shore 75 

Swinging slow with sullen roar; l\ 

Or, if the air will not permit. 

Some still removed place will fit, 

Where glowing embers through the room 

Teach light to counterfeit a gloom, ! so 

Far from all resort of mirth, 

Save the cricket on the hearth, 

Or the bellman's drowsy charm 

To bless the doors from nightly harm. 

Or let my lamp at midnight hour 85 

Be seen in some high lonely tower, 

Where I may oft out-watch the Bear 

With thrice-great Hermes, or unsphere 



24 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

The spirit of Plato, to unfold 

What worlds, or what vast regions hold 90 

The immortal mind that hath forsook 

Her mansion in this fleshly nook, 

And of those demons that are found 

In fire, air, flood, or underground, 

Whose power hath a true consent 95 

With planet, or with element. 

Sometime let gorgeous tragedy y^ 

In sceptred pall come sweeping by, 

Presenting Thebes', or Pelops' line, 

Or the tale of Troy divine. loo 

Or what (though rare) of later age 

Ennobled hath the buskined stage. 

But, O sad Virgin, that thy power 

Might raise Musseus from his bower. 

Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing 105 

Such notes as, warbled to the string, 

Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, 

And made Hell grant what Love did seek. 

Or call up him that left half told 

The story of Cambuscan bold, no 

Of Camball, and of Algarsife, 

And who had Canace to wife, 

That owned the virtuous ring and glass, 

And of the wondrous horse of brass, 

On which the Tartar king did ride; ii5 

And if aught else great bards beside 

In sage and solemn tunes have sung, 

Of tourneys, and of trophies hung; 

Of forests, and enchantments drear. 

Where more is meant than meets the ear. 120 



IL PENSEROSO 25 

Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career, 
Till civil-suited Morn appear. 
Not tricked and frounced as she was wont 
With the Attic boy to hunt. 

But kerchiefed in a comely cloud, 125 

While rocking winds are piping loud, 
Or ushered with a shower still, ~p^ 
When the gust hath blown his fill. 
Ending on the rustling leaves. 

With minute drops from off the eaves. 130 

And when the sun begins to fling 
His flaring beams, me, Goddess, bring 
To arched walks of twilight groves 
And shadows brown that Sylvan loves 
Of pine or monumental oak, 135 

Where the rude axe with heaved stroke 
Was never heard the Nymphs to daunt. 
Or fright them from their hallowed haunt. 
There in close covert by some brook, 
Where no profaner eye may look, 140 

Hide me from day's garish eye. 
While the bee with honied thigh. 
That at her flowery work doth sing, 
And the waters murmuring. 

With such consort as they keep, 145 

Entice the dewy-feathered sleep; 
And let some strange mysterious dream 
Wave at his wings in airy stream 
Of Hvely portraiture displayed. 

Softly on my eyelids laid; iso 

And, as I wake, sweet music breathe 
Above, about or underneath, 



MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

Sent by some spirit to mortals good, 

Or the unseen Genius of the wood. 

But let my due feet never fail 155 

To walk the studious cloister's pale, 

And love the high embowed roof, 

With antic pillars massy proof. 

And storied windows richly dight 

Casting a dim religious light. 160 

There let the pealing organ blow 

To the full-voiced choir below. 

In service high and anthems clear 

As may with sweetness, through mine ear, 

Dissolve me into ecstasies 165 

And bring all Heaven before mine eyes. 

And may at last my weary age 

Find out the peaceful hermitage. 

The hairy gown and mossy cell, 

Where I may sit and rightly spell 170 

Of every star that heaven doth shew. 

And every herb that sips the dew. 

Till old experience do attain 

To something like prophetic strain. 

These pleasures, Melancholy, give, 175 

And I with thee will choose to Hve. 



VI 
COMUS 

THE PERSONS 

The Attendant Spirit, afterward in the habit of Thyrsis. 

CoMus, with his crew. 

The Lady. 

First Brother. 

Second Brother. 

Sabrina, the Nymph. 

The chief persons which presented were: 

The Lord Brackley, 

Mr. Thomas Egerton, his brother. 

The Lady Alice Egerton. 

The first scene discovers a wild wood. 
The Attendant Spirit descends or enters. 

Spirit. Before the starry threshold of Jove's court 
My mansion is, where those immortal shapes 
Of bright aerial spirits live insphered 
In regions mild of calm and serene air, 
Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot 5 

Which men call Earth, and with low-thoughted care, 
Confined and pestered in this pin-fold here. 
Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being, 
Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives, 
After this mortal change, to her true servants, lo 

Amongst the enthroned gods, on sainted seats. 
Yet some there be that by due steps aspire 
27 



28 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

To lay their just hands on that golden key 

That opes the palace of Eternity: 

To such my errand is, and, but for such, 15 

I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds 

With the rank vapors of this sin-worn mould. 

But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway 
Of every salt flood and each ebbing stream, 
Took in by lot, 'twixt high and nether Jove, 20 

Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles. 
That like to rich and various gems inlay 
The unadorned bosom of the deep; 
Which he, to grace his tributary gods. 
By course commits to several government, 25 

And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns 
And wield their little tridents. But this Isle, 
The greatest and the best of all the main. 
He quarters to his blue-haired deities; 
And all this tract that fronts the falHng sun 30 

A noble Peer of mickle trust and power 
Has in his charge, with tempered awe to guide 
An old and haughty nation, proud in arms: 
Where his fair offspring, nursed in princely lore, 
Are coming to attend their father's state, 35 

And new-intrusted sceptre. But their way 
Lies through the perplexed paths of this drear wood. 
The nodding horror of whose shady brows 
Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger. 
And here their tender age might suffer peril, 40 

But that, by quick command from sovran Jove, 
I was despatched for their defence and guard. 
And listen why — for I will tell you now 
What never yet was heard in tale or song, 



COMUS 29 

From old or modern bard, in hall or bower. 45 

Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape 
Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine, 
After the Tuscan mariners transformed. 
Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, as the winds listed, 
On Circe's island fell (who knows not Circe, so 

The daughter of the Sun, whose charmed cup 
Whoever tasted lost his upright shape, 
And downward fell into a groveUing swine?). 
This nymph, that gazed upon his clustering locks 
With ivy berries wreathed and his bhthe youth, 55 

Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son 
Much like his father, but his mother more, 
Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus named : 
Who, ripe and frolic of his full-grown age. 
Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields, 60 

At last betakes him to this ominous wood. 
And, in thick shelter of black shades embowered, 
Excels his mother at her mighty art, 
Offering to every weary traveller 

His orient liquor in a crystal glass, 65 

To quench the drouth of Phoebus, which as they 

taste 
(For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst), 
Soon as the potion works, their human countenance, 
The express resemblance of the gods, is changed 
Into some brutish form of wolf, or bear, 70 

Or ounce, or tiger, hog, or bearded goat. 
All other parts remaining as they were; 
And they, so perfect is their misery, 
Not once perceive their foul disfigurement. 
But boast themselves more comely than before, 75 



30 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

And all their friends and native home forget, 

To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty. 

Therefore, when any favored of high Jove 

Chances to pass through this adventurous glade. 

Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star so 

I shoot from heaven to give him safe convoy, 

As now I do. But first I must put off 

These my sky robes, spun out of Iris' woof, 

And take the weeds and Ukeness of a swain 

That to the service of this house belongs, 85 

Who with his soft pipe and smooth-dittied song 

Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar 

And hush the waving woods; nor of less faith. 

And in this office of his mountain watch 

Likeliest and nearest to the present aid 90 

Of this occasion. But I hear the tread 

Of hateful steps; I must be viewless now. 

CoMus enters with a charming-rod in one hand, his glass in the 
other; with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of 
loild beasts, hut otherwise like men and women, their apparel 
glistering; they come in making a riotous and unruly noise, 
with torches in their hands. 

Comus. The star that bids the shepherd fold 
Now the top of heaven doth hold. 

And the gilded car of day _ 95 

His glowing axle doth allay 
In the steep Atlantic stream; 
And the slope sun his upward beam 
Shoots against the dusky pole, 

Pacing toward the other goal lOO 

Of his chamber in the east. 



COMUS 31 

Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast, 

Midnight shout and revelry, 

Tipsy dance and jollity. 

Braid your locks with rosy twine, i05 

Dropping odors, dropping wine. 

Rigor now is gone to bed, 

And Advice with scrupulous head, 

Strict Age, and sour Severity, 

With their grave saws, in slumber lie. no 

We that are of purer fire 

Imitate the starry choir, 

Who in their nightly watchful spheres 

Lead in swift round the months and years. 

The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, ii5 

Now to the moon in wavering morris move; 

And on the tawny sands and shelves 

Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves; 

By dimpled brook, and fountain brim. 

The wood-nymphs, decked with daisies trim, 120 

Their merry wakes and pastimes keep. 

What hath night to do with sleep ? 

Night hath better sweets to prove — 

Venus now wakes, and wakens Love. 

Come, let us our rites begin! 125 

'T is only daylight that makes sin. 

Which these dun shades will ne'er report. 

Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport, 

Dark-veiled Cotytto, to whom the secret flame 

Of midnight torches burns — mysterious dame, 130 

That ne'er art called but when the dragon womb , 

Of Stygian darkness spits her thickest gloom 

And makes one blot of all the air — 



32 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

Stay thy cloudy ebon chair. 

Wherein thou ridest with Hecate, and befriend 135 

Us, thy vowed priests, till utmost end 

Of all thy dues be done and none left out, 

Ere the blabbing eastern scout, 

The nice morn on the Indian steep, 

From her cabined loophole peep, 140 

And to the telltale Sun descry 

Our concealed solemnity. 

Come, knit hands, and beat the ground, 

In a light fantastic round. 



The Measure. 
'/ 
Break off! break off! I feel the different pace i45 

Of some chaste footing near about this ground. 
Run to your shrouds within these brakes and trees; 
Our number may affright — some virgin, sure, 
(For so I can distinguish by mine art) 
Benighted in these woods. Now to my charms, iso 
And to my wily trains. I shall ere long 
Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed 
About my mother Circe. Thus I hurl 
My dazzling spells into the spongy air. 
Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion 155 

And give it false presentments, lest the place 
And my quaint habits breed astonishment, 
And put the damsel to suspicious flight: 
Which must not be, for that's against my course. 
I, under fair pretence of friendly ends leo 

And well-placed words of glozing courtesy. 
Baited with reasons not unplausible. 



COMUS 33 

Wind me into the easy-hearted man 

And hug him into snares. When once her eye 

Hath met the virtue of this magic dust, 165 

I shall appear some harmless villager, 

Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear. 

But here she comes; I fairly step aside 

And hearken, if I may, her business here. 

The Lady enters. 

Lady. This way the noise was, if mine ear be true, i70 

My best guide now. Methought it was the sound 
Of riot and ill-managed merriment, 
Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe 
Stirs up among the loose unlettered hinds, 
When for their teeming flocks and granges full 175 

In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan, 
And thank the gods amiss. I should be loath 
To meet the rudeness and swilled insolence 
Of such late wassailers; yet oh, where else 
Shall I inform my unacquainted feet 180 

In the blind mazes of this tangled wood? 
My brothers, when they saw me wearied out 
With this long way, resolving here to lodge 
Under the spreading favor of these pines. 
Stepped, as they said, to the next thicket-side i85 

To bring me berries or such cooling fruit 
As the kind hospitable woods provide. 
They left me then, when the gray-hooded Even, 
Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed, 
Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain. 190 
But where they are, and why they came not back, 



34 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

Is now the labor of my thoughts: 't is likeliest 

They had engaged their wandering steps too far, 

And envious darkness, ere they could return, 

Had stole them from me. Else, O thievish Night, i95 

Why should'st thou, but for some felonious end, 

In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars, 

That Nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps 

With everlasting oil, to give due light 

To the misled and lonely traveller? 200 

This is the place, as well as I may guess, 

Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth 

Was rife and perfect in my listening ear; 

Yet naught but single darkness do I find. 

What might this be? A thousand fantasies 205 

Begin to throng into my memory 

Of calling shapes, and beck'ning shadows dire. 

And airy tongues that syllable men's names 

On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses. 

These thoughts may startle well, but not astound, 210 

The virtuous mind that ever walks attended 

By a strongsiding champion. Conscience. — 

welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, 
Thou hovering angel, girt with golden wings. 

And thou unblemished form of Chastity, 215 

1 see ye visibly, and now believe 

That He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill 

Are but as slavish officers of vengeance. 

Would send a glistering guardian, if need were. 

To keep my life and honor unassailed. 220 

Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud 

Turn forth her silver lining on the night? 

I did not err, there does a sable cloud 



COMUS 35 

Turn forth her silver lining on the night, 

And casts a gleam over this tufted grove. 225 

I cannot halloo to my brothers, but 

Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest 

I'll venture, for my new-enlivened spirits 

Prompt me, and they perhaps are not far off. 

Song 

Sweet Echoy sweetest nymph, that livst unseen 230 

Within thy airy shell 
By slow Meander s mar gent green, 
And in the violet-embroidered vale, 

Where the lovelorn nightingale 
Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well, 235 

Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair 
That nicest thy Narcissus aref 

O, if thou have 
Hid them in some flowery cave. 

Tell me but where, 240 

Sweet Queen of Parley, daughter of the sphere, 
So mayest thou be translated to the skies, 
And give resounding grace to all heavens harmonies. 

Enter Comus. 

Comus. Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould 

Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment? 245 

Sure something holy lodges in that breast, 

And with these raptures moves the vocal air 

To testify his hidden residence. 

How sweetly did they float upon the wings 



36 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

Of silence through the empty-vauUed night, 250 

At every fall smoothing the raven down 
Of darkness till it smiled! I have oft heard 
My mother Circe with the Sirens three, 
Amidst the flowery-kirtled Naiades, 
Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs, 255 

Who, as they sung, would take the prisoned soul 
And lap it in elysium. Scylla wept. 
And chid her barking waves into attention. 
And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause. 
Yet they in pleasing slumber lulled the sense 26O 

And in sweet madness robbed it of itself. 
But such a sacred and home-felt delight, 
Such sober certainty of waking bliss, 
I never heard till now. I'll speak to her. 
And she shall be my queen. — Hail, foreign wonder! 265 
Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, 
•Unless the goddess that in rural shrine 
Dwell'st here with Pan or Sylvan, by blest song 
Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog 
To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood. 270 

Lady. Nay, gentle shepherd, ill is lost that praise 
That is addressed to unattending ears. 
Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift 
How to regain my severed company. 
Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo 275 

To give me answer from her mossy couch. 

Comus. What chance, good lady, hath bereft you thus ? 

Lady. Dim darkness, and this leavy labyrinth. 

Comiis. Could that divide you from near-ushering 
guides ? 

Lady. They left me weary on a grassy turf. 280 



COMUS 37 

Comus. By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why? 

Lady. To seek i' the valley some cool friendly spring. 

Comus. And left your fair side all unguarded, Lady ? 

Lady. They were but twain, and purposed quick return. 

Comus. Perhaps forestalling night prevented them. 285 

Lady. How easy my misfortune is to hit! 

Comus. Imports their loss, beside the present need ? 

Lady. No less than if I should my brothers lose. 

Comus. Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom ? 

Lady. As smooth as Hebe's their unrazored lips. 290 

Comus. Two such I saw, what time the labored ox 
In his loose traces from the furrow came. 
And the swinked hedger at his supper sat. 
I saw them under a green mantling vine 
That crawls along the side of yon small hill, 295 

Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots. 
Their port was more than human, as they stood; 
r took it for a faery vision 
Of some gay creatures of the element. 
That in the colors of the rainbow live 300 

And play i' the plighted clouds. I was awe-struck. 
And as I passed, I worshipped. If those you seek, 
It were a journey like the path to heaven 
To help you find them. 

La(£y. Gentle villager, 

What readiest way would bring me to that place? 305 

Comus. Due west it rises from this shrubby point. 

Lady. To find out that, good shepherd, I suppose, 
In such a scant allowance of starlight. 
Would overtask the best land-pilot's art, 
Without the sure guess of well-practised feet. 310 

Comus. I know each lane, and every alley green, 



38 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

Dingle, or bushy dell of this wild wood, 
And every bosky bourne from side to side, 
My daily walks and ancient neighborhood; 
And if your stray attendance be yet lodged ■ 815 

Or shroud within these limits, I shall know 
Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark 
From her thatched pallet rouse. If otherwise, 
I can conduct you, lady, to a low 

But loyal cottage, where you may be safe 320 

Till further quest. 
Lady. Shepherd, I take thy word, 

And trust thy honest-offered courtesy, 
Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds 
With smoky rafters than in tapestry halls 
And courts of princes, where it first was named 325 

And yet is most pretended. In a place 
Less warranted than this, or less secure, 
I cannot be, that I should fear to change it. 
Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial 
To my proportioned strength ! Shepherd, lead on. 330 

Enter the Two Brothers. 

Elder Brother. Unmuffle, ye faint stars, and thou, fair 
moon, 
That wontest to love the traveller's benison. 
Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud, 
And disinherit Chaos that reigns here 
In double night of darkness and of shades, 335 

Or, if your influence be quite dammed up 
With black usurping mists, some gentle taper, 
Though a rush candle from the wicker hole 
Of some clay habitation, visit us 



COMUS 39 

With thy long levelled rule of streaming light, 340 

And thou shalt be our star of Arcady, 
Or Tyrian Cynosure. 

Second Brother. Or, if our eyes 

Be barred that happiness, might we but hear 
The folded flocks penned in their wattled cotes. 
Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops, 345 

Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock 
Count the night-watches to his feathery dames, 
*T would be some solace yet, some little cheering. 
In this close dungeon of innumerous boughs. 
But oh, that hapless virgin, our lost sister! 350 

Where may she wander now, whither betake her 
From the chill dew, amongst rude burrs and this- 
tles? 
Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now. 
Or 'gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm 
Leans her unpillowed head fraught with sad fears. 355 
What if in wild amazement and affright. 
Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp 
Of savage hunger or of savage heat? 

Elder Brother. Peace, brother, be not over-exquisite 

To cast the fashion of uncertain evils, 360 

For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown. 

What need a man forestall his date of grief. 

And run to meet what he would most avoid ? 

Or if they be but false alarms of fear. 

How bitter is such self-delusion! 365 

I do not think my sister so to seek. 

Or so unprincipled in virtue's book 

And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever. 

As that the single want of Hght and noise 



40 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

(Not being in danger, as I trust she is not) 370 

Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts 
And put them into misbecoming plight. 
Virtue could see to do what Virtue would 
By her own radiant light, though sun and moon 
Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom's self 375 

Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude. 
Where with her best nurse. Contemplation, 
She plumes her feathers and lets grow her wings 
That in the various bustle of resort 
Were all-to-ruffled and sometimes impaired. 380 

He that has light within his own clear breast, 
May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day; 
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts 
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; 
Himself is his own dungeon. 
Second Brother. 'T is most true 385 

That musing meditation most affects 
The pensive secrecy of desert cell. 
Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds. 
And sits as safe as in a senate-house. 
For who would rob a hermit of his weeds, 390 

His few books, or his beads, or maple dish. 
Or do his gray hairs any violence? 
But beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree 
Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard 
Of dragon-watch wdth unenchanted eye 395 

To save her blossoms and defend her fruit 
From the rash hand of bold Incontinence. 
You may as well spread out the unsunned heaps 
Of miser's treasure by an outlaw's den 
And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope 400 



COMUS 41 

Danger will wink on opportunity 

And let a single helpless maiden pass 

Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste. 

Of night or loneliness it recks me not; 

I fear the dread events that dog them both, 405 

Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person 

Of our unowned sister. 

Elder Brother. I do not, brother, 

Infer as if I thought my sister's state 
Secure without all doubt or controversy; 
Yet where an equal poise of hope and fear 410 

Does arbitrate the event, my nature is 
That I incline to hope rather than fear, 
And gladly banish squint suspicion. 
My sister is not so defenceless left 

As you imagine; she has a hidden strength 415 

Which you remember not. 

Second Brother. What hidden strength. 

Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that ? 

Elder Brother. I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength 
Which, if Heaven gave it, may be termed her own ; 
'T is chastity, my brother, chastity — 420 

She that has that is clad in complete steel, 
And like a quivered nymph with arrows keen 
May trace huge forests and unharbored heaths, 
Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds, 
Where, through the sacred rays of chastity, 425 

No savage fierce, bandit, or mountaineer 
Will dare to soil her virgin purity. 
Yea, there where very desolation dwells. 
By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades. 
She may pass on with unblenched majesty, 430 



42 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

Be it not done in pride or in presumption. 

Some say no evil thing that walks by night, 

In fog, or fire, by lake, or moorish fen. 

Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost 

That breaks his magic chains at curfew time, 435 

No goblin, or swart faery of the mine, 

Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity. 

Do ye beUeve me yet, or shall I call 

Antiquity from the old schools of Greece 

To testify the arms of chastity? 440 

Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow, 

Fair silver-shafted queen forever chaste. 

Wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness 

And spotted mountain pard, but set at nought 

The frivolous bolt of Cupid; gods and men 445 

Feared her stern frown, and she was queen o' the 

woods. 
What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield. 
That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin. 
Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone. 
But rigid looks of chaste austerity, 450 

And noble grace that dashed brute violence 
With sudden adoration and blank awe? 
So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity, 
That when a soul is found sincerely so, 
A thousand liveried angels lackey her, 455 

Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, 
And in clear dream and solemn vision 
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear, 
Till oft converse with heavenly habitants 
Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape, 460 

The unpolluted temple of the mind. 



COMUS 4a 

And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence, 

Till all be made immortal. But when lust 

By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk, 

But most by lewd and lavish act of sin, 465 

Lets in defilement to the inward parts, 

The soul grows clotted by contagion, 

Imbodies and imbrutes till she quite lose 

The divine property of her first being. 

Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp 470 

Oft seen in charnel vaults and sepulchres, 

Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave, 

As loath to leave the body that it loved. 

And linked itself by carnal sensualty 

To a degenerate and degraded state. 475 

Second Brother. How charming is divine philosophy, 
Not harsh, and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, 
But musical as is Apollo's lute. 
And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets. 
Where no crude surfeit reigns! 

Elder Brother. List, list! I hear 480 

Some far-off halloo break the silent air. 

Second Brother. Methought so too. What should it be ? 

Elder Brother. For certain 

Either some one like us night-foundered here, 
Or else some neighbor woodman, or, at worst, 
Some roving robber calling to his fellows. 485 

Second Brother. Heaven keep my sister! Again, again, 
and near! 
Best draw, and stand upon our guard. 

Elder Brother. I '11 halloo. 

If he be friendly, he comes well; if not. 
Defence is a good cause, and Heaven be for us. 



44 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

Enter the Attendant Spirit, habited like a shepherd. 

That halloo I should know. What are you ? Speak ! 490 
Come not too near; you fall on iron stakes else! 

Spirit. What voice is that? — my young Lord? — speak 
again. 

Second Brother. O brother, 't is my father's shepherd, 
sure. 

Elder Brother. Thyrsis — whose artful strains have oft 
delayed 
The huddling brook to hear his madrigal, 495 

And sweetened every musk-rose of the dale? 
How camest thou here, good swain ? Hath any ram 
Slipped from the fold, or young kid lost his dam. 
Or straggling wether the pent flock forsook ? 
How could'st thou find this dark sequestered nook ? 500 

Spirit. O my loved master's heir, and his next joy, 
I came not here on such a trivial toy 
As a strayed ewe, or to pursue the stealth 
Of pilfering wolf; not all the fleecy wealth 
That doth enrich these downs is worth a thought 505 
To this my errand, and the care it brought. 
But, O my virgin Lady, where is she? 
How chance she is not in your company? 

Elder Brother. To tell thee sadly, shepherd, without 
blame. 
Or our neglect, we lost her as we came. 5 10 

Spirit. Ay, me unhappy! then my fears are true. 

Elder Brother. What fears, good Thyrsis ? Prithee briefly 
shew. 

Spirit. I '11 tell ye; 't is not vain, or fabulous 
(Though so esteemed by shallow ignorance), 



COMUS 45 

What the sage poets, taught by the heavenly Muse, 5i5 

Storied of old in high immortal verse. 

Of dire chimeras, and enchanted isles. 

And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to hell. 

For such there be, but unbeHef is blind. 

Within the navel of this hideous wood, 620 

Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells, 
Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus, 
Deep skilled in all his mother's witcheries; 
And here to every thirsty wanderer 
By sly enticement gives his baneful cup, 625 

With many murmurs mixed, whose pleasing poison 
The visage quite transforms of him that drinks 
And the inglorious likeness of a beast 
Fixes instead, unmoulding reason's mintage 
Charactered in the face. This I have learnt 530 

Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts 
That brow this bottom glade, whence night by night 
He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl 
Like stabled wolves or tigers at their prey. 
Doing abhorred rites to Hecate 535 

In their obscured haunts of inmost bowers. 
Yet have they many baits and guileful spells 
To inveigle and invite the unwary sense 
Of them that pass unwitting by the way. 
This evening late, by then the chewing flocks 540 

Had ta'en their supper on the savory herb 
Of knot-grass dew-besprent and were in fold, 
I sat me down to watch upon a bank 
With ivy canopied and interwove 

With flaunting honeysuckle, and began, 545 

Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy, 



46 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

To meditate my rural minstrelsy, 

Till Fancy had her fill. But, ere a close, 

The wonted roar was up amidst the woods' 

And filled the air with barbarous dissonance; 550 

At which I ceased, and listened them a while, 

Till an unusual stop of sudden silence 

Gave respite to the drowsy-flighted steeds 

That draw, the litter of close-curtained sleep. 

At last a soft and solemif-breathing sound 555 

Rose like a steam of rich distilled perfumes 

And stole upon the air, that even Silence 

Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might 

Deny her nature, and be never more. 

Still to be so displaced. I was all ear, 560 

And took in strains that might create a soul 

Under the ribs of Death. But oh, ere long 

Too well did I perceive it was the voice 

Of my most honored Lady, your dear sister ! 

Amazed I stood, harrowed with grief and fear, 565 

And "O poor hapless nightingale," thought I, 

"How sweet thou sing'st, how near the deadly 

snare!" 
Then down the lawns I ran with headlong haste, 
Through paths and turnings often trod by day. 
Till, guided by mine ear, I found the place 570 

Where that damned wizard, hid in sly disguise 
(For so by certain signs I knew), had met 
Already, ere my best speed could prevent. 
The aidless innocent lady, his wished prey. 
Who gently asked if he had seen such two, 575 

Supposing him some neighbor villager. 
Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed 



COMUS 47 

Ye were the two she meant. With that I sprung 
Into swift flight, till I had found you here, 
But further know I not. 

Second Brother. O night and shades, 580 

How are ye joined with hell in triple knot 
Against the unarmed weakness of one virgin, 
Alone and helpless! Is this the confidence 
You gave me, brother? 

Elder Brother. Yes, and keep it still. 

Lean on it safely. Not a period 585 

Shall be unsaid for me. Against the threats 

Of malice or of sorcery, or that power 

Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm, 

Virtue may be assailed but never hurt, 

Surprised by unjust force but not enthralled. 590 

Yea, even that which mischief meant most harm 

Shall in the happy trial prove most glory. 

But evil on itself shall back recoil, 

And mix no more with goodness, when at last. 

Gathered like scum and settled to itself, 595 

It shall be in eternal restless change 

Self -fed and self-consumed. If this fail. 

The pillared firmament is rottenness 

And earth's base built on stubble. But come, let's 

on! 
Against the opposing will and arm of Heaven 600 

May never this just sword be lifted up, 
But for that damned magician, let him be girt 
With all the grisly legions that troop . 
Under the sooty flag of Acheron, 

Harpies and Hydras, or all the monstrous forms 605 
'Twixt Africa and Ind, I'll find him out, 



48 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

And force him to return his purchase back, 
Or drag him by the curls to a foul death, 
Cursed as his life. 

Spirit. Alas! good venturous youth, 

I love thy courage yet and bold emprise, 6io 

But here thy sword can do thee little stead. 

Far other arms and other weapons must 

Be those that quell the might of hellish charms. 

He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints, 

And crumble all thy sinews. 

Elder Brother. Why prithee, shepherd, 6 15 

How durst thou then thyself approach so near 
As to make this relation ? 

Spirit. Care and utmost shifts 

How to secure the Lady from surprisal 
Brought to my mind a certain shepherd lad. 
Of small regard to see to, yet well skilled 620 

In every virtuous plant and healing herb 
That spreads her verdant leaf to the morning ray. 
He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing. 
Which when I did, he on the tender grass 
Would sit and hearken e'en to ecstasy, 625 

And in requital ope his leathern scrip 
And show me simples of a thousand names, 
Telling their strange and vigorous faculties. 
Amongst the rest a small unsightly root, 
But of divine effect, he culled me out. 630 

The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it. 
But in another country, as he said, 
Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil. 
Unknown and Hke esteemed, and the dull swain 
Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon, 635 



COMUS 49 

And yet more med'cinal is it than that Moly 
That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave. 
He called it Hsemony, and gave it me, 
And bade me keep it as of sovran use 
'Gainst all enchantments, mildew-blast, or damp, 640 
Or ghastly furies' apparition. 
I pursed it up, but little reckoning made. 
Till now that this extremity compelled. 
But now I find it true; for by this means 
I knew the foul enchanter though disguised, 645 

Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells. 
And yet came off. If you have this about you 
(As I will give you when we go), you may 
Boldly assault the necromancer's hall, 
Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood 650 

And brandished blade rush on him, break his glass, 
And shed the luscious liquor on the ground. 
But seize his wand. Though he and his curst crew 
Fierce sign of battle make and menace high, 
Or like the sons of Vulcan vomit smoke, 655 

Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink. 
Elder Brother. Thyrsis, lead on apace, I'll follow thee 
And some good angel bear a shield before us. 

The scene changes to a stately palace, set out with all manner of de- 
liciousness; soft mitsic, tables spread with all dainties. CoMUS 
appears with his rabble, and the Lady set in an enchanted chair, 
to whom he offers his glass, which she puts by, and goes about to 
rise. 

Comus. Nay, Lady, sit; if I but wave this wand 

Youf nerves are all chained up in alabaster, 660 

And you a statue, or as Daphne was, 
Root-bound, that fled Apollo. 



50 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

Lady. Fool, do not boast: 

Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind 
With all thy charms, although this corporal rind 
Thou hast enmanacled while Heaven sees good. 665 

Comus. Why are you vexed, Lady ? Why do you frown ? 
Here dwell no frowns nor anger; from these gates 
Sorrow flies far. See, here be all the pleasures 
That Fancy can beget on youthful thoughts, 
When the fresh blood grows lively and returns 670 

Brisk as the April buds in primrose season. 
And first behold this cordial julep here 
That flames and dances in his crystal bounds. 
With spirits of balm and fragrant sirups mixed. 
Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone 675 

In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena 
Is of such power to stir up joy as this, 
To Hfe so friendly, or so cool to thirst. 
Why should you be so cruel to yourself 
And to those dainty limbs which Nature lent 680 

For gentle usage and soft delicacy ? 
But you invert the covenants of her trust 
And harshly deal, like an ill borrower, 
With that which you received on other terms, 
Scorning the unexempt condition 685 

By which all mortal frailty must subsist. 
Refreshment after toil, ease after pain, 
That have been tired all day without repast 
And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin, 
This will restore all soon. 

Lady. 'T will not, false traitor, 690 

'T will not restore the truth and honesty 
That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies. 



COMUS 51 

Was this the cottage and the safe abode 
Thou told'st me of ? What grim aspects are these, 
These ugly-headed monsters ? Mercy guard me ! 695 
Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver ! 
Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence 
With visored falsehood and base forgery, 
And would'st thou seek again to trap me here 
With lickerish baits fit to ensnare a brute? 700 

Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets, 
I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None 
But such as are good men can give good things, 
And that which is not good is not delicious 
To a well-governed and wise appetite. 705 

Comus. O foolishness of men that lend their ears 
To those budge doctors of the Stoic fur. 
And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub. 
Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence! 
Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth 7 10 

With such a full and unwithdrawing hand, 
Covering the earth with odors, fruits, and flocks. 
Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable. 
But all to please and sate the curious taste? 
And set to work millions of spinning worms, 7 15 

That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired 

silk, 
To deck her sons. And that no corner might 
Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins 
She hutched th' all-worshipped ore, and precious 

gems, 
To store her children with. If all the world "20 

Should in a pet of temperance feed on pulse, 
Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze. 



52 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

Th' All-giver would be unthanked, would be un- 

praised, 
Not half his riches known, and yet despised, 
And we should serve him as a grudging master, 725 
As a penurious niggard of his wealth, 
And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons. 
Who would be quite surcharged with her own weight, 
And strangled with her waste fertility. 
The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with 

plumes, 730 

The herds would over-multitude their lords, 
The sea o'erfraught would swell, and the unsought 

diamonds 
Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep, 
And so bestud with stars, that they below 
Would grow inured to light, and come at last 735 

To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows. 
List, Lady, be not coy, and be not cozened 
With that same vaunted name Virginity. 
Beauty is nature's coin, must not be hoarded, 
But must be current, and the good thereof 740 

Consists in mutual and partaken bliss, 
Unsavory in the enjoyment of itself. 
If you let slip time, like a neglected rose 
It withers on the stalk with languished head. 
Beauty is nature's brag, and must be shown 745 

In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities. 
Where most may wonder at the workmanship. 
It is for homely features to keep home; 
They had their name thence; coarse complexions, 
And cheeks of sorry grain, will serve to ply 750 

The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool. 



COMUS 53 

What need a vermeil-tinctured lip for that, 
Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn? 
There was another meaning in these gifts: 
Think what, and be advised; you are but young yet. 755 
Lady. I had not thought to have unlocked my lips 
In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler 
Would think to charm my judgment as mine eyes. 
Obtruding false rules pranked in reason's garb. 
I hate when Vice can bolt her arguments, 760 

And Virtue has no tongue to check her pride. 
Impostor, do not charge most innocent Nature, 
As if she would her children should be riotous 
With her abundance; she, good cateress, • 
Means her provision only to the good, 765 

That live according to her sober laws. 
And holy dictate of spare Temperance, 
If every just man that now pines with want 
Had but a moderate and beseeming share 
Of that which lewdly-pampered luxury 770 

Now heaps upon some few with vast excess, 
Nature's full blessings would be well dispensed 
In unsupetfluous even proportion, 
And she no whit encumbered with her store; 
And then the giver would be better thanked, 775 

His praise due paid, for swinish gluttony 
Ne'er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast, 
But with besotted base ingratitude 
Crams, and blasphemes his feeder. Shall I go on, 
Or have I said enow ? To him that dares 780 

Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words 
Against the sun-clad power of Chastity, 
Fain would I something say, yet to what end ? 



54 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

Thou hast not ear nor soul to apprehend 
The sublime notion and high mystery 785 

That must be uttered to unfold the sage 
And serious doctrine of Virginity; 
And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know 
More happiness than this thy present lot. 
Enjoy your dear wit and gay rhetoric 790 

That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence; 
Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced. 
Yet, should I try, the uncontrolled worth 
Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits 
To such a flame of sacred vehemence, 795 

That dumb things would be moved to sympa- 
thize, 
And the brute earth would lend her nerves and 

shake, 
Till all thy magic structures, reared so high, 
Were shattered into heaps o'er thy false head. 
Comus. She fables not. I feel that I do fear 800 

Her words set off by some superior power; 
And, though not mortal, yet a cold shuddering 

dew 
Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove 
Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus 
To some of Saturn's crew. I must dissemble, 805 

And try her yet more strongly. 

Come, no more! 
This is mere moral babble, and direct 
Against the canon laws of our foundation. 
I must not suffer this, yet 't is but the lees 
And settlings of a melancholy blood. 8 10 

But this will cure all straight; one sip of this 



COMUS 55 

Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight 
Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste. 

The Brothers rush in with swords drawn, wrest his glass out of 
his hand, and break it against the ground; his rout make sign of 
resistance, but are all driven in. The Attendant Spirit comes 
in. 

Spirit. What, have you let the false enchanter 'scape? 

O ye mistook, ye should have snatched his wand, 8i5 

And bound him fast. Without his rod reversed, 

And backward mutters of dissevering power, 

We cannot free the Lady that sits here 

In stony fetters fixed and motionless. 

Yet stay, be not disturbed; now I bethink me, 820 

Some other means I have which may be used. 

Which once of Meliboeus old I learnt, 

The soothest shepherd that e'er piped on plains. 

There is a gentle nymph not far from hence, 
That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn 

stream. 825 

Sabrina is her name, a virgin pure. 
Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine, 
That had the sceptre from his father Brute. 
She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit 
Of her enraged stepdame Guendolen, 830 

Commended her fair innocence to the flood, 
That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course. 
The water-nymphs, that in the bottom played, 
Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in. 
Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall, 835 

Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head, 
And gave her to his daughters to embathe 
In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel. 



5Q MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

And through the porch and inlet of each sense 

Dropt in ambrosial oils, till she revived, 840 

And underwent a quick immortal change, 

Made goddess of the river. Still she retains 

Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve 

Visits the herds along the twihght meadows. 

Helping all urchin blasts and ill luck signs 845 

That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make. 

Which she with precious vialed hquors heals^ 

For which the shepherds at their festivals 

Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays, 

And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream 850 

Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils. 

And, as the old swain said, she can unlock 

The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell, 

If she be right invoked in warbled song; 

For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift 855 

To aid a virgin, such as was herself, 

In hard besetting need. This will I try. 

And add the power of some adjuring verse. 

Song 
Sabrina fair, 
Listen, where thou art sitting 860 

Under the glassy, cool, translucejit wave. 

In twisted braids of lilies knitting 
The loose train of thy amber-droppiiig hair. 
Listen for dear honoris sake. 

Goddess of the silver lake, 865 

Listen and save ! 

Listen and appear to us 
In name of great Oceanus. 



COMUS 57 

By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace 

And Tethys' grave majestic pace, 870 

By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look 

And the Carpathian wizard's hook, 

By scaly Triton's w^inding shell 

And old soothsaying Glaucus' spejl. 

By Leucothea's lovely hands 875 

And her son that rules the strands, 

By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet 

And the songs of Sirens sweet, 

By dead Parthenope's dear tomb, 

And fair Ligea's golden comb, sso 

Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks 

Sleeking her soft alluring locks, 

By all the nymphs that nightly dance 

Upon thy streams with wily glance, 

Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head 885 

From thy coral-paven bed. 

And bridle in thy headlong wave, 

Till thou our summons answered have. 

Listen and save ! 

Sabrina rises, attended by Water-nymphs, and sings. 

By the rushy-fringed hank, 890 

Where grows the willow and the osier dank, 

My sliding chariot stays, 
Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheen 
Of Turkis blue, and emerald green. 

That in the channel strays; 895 

Whilst from off the waters fleet. 
Thus I set my printless feet 
O'er the cowslip's velvet head, 



58 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

That bends not as I tread; 

Gentle swain, at thy request 900 

I am here! 
Spirit. Goddess dear, 

We implore thy powerful hand 

To undo the charmed band 

Of true virgin here distressed 905 

Through the force and through the wile 

Of unblest enchanter vile. 
Sabrina. Shepherd, 't is my oflBce best 

To help ensnared chastity: 

Brightest Lady, look on me; 910 

Thus I sprinkle on thy breast 

Drops that from my fountain pure 

I have kept of precious cure. 

Thrice upon thy fingers' tip, 

Thrice upon thy rubied lip, 916 

Next, this marble venomed seat. 

Smeared with gums of glutinous heat, 

I touch with chaste palms moist and cold. 

Now the spell hath lost his hold; 

And I must haste, ere morning hour, 920 

To wait in Amphitrite's bower. 

Sabrina descends, and the Lady rises out of her seat. 

Spirit. Virgin, daughter of Locrine, 
Sprung of old Anchises' hne. 
May thy brimmed waves for this 

Their full tribute never miss 925 

From a thousand petty rills. 
That tumble down the snowy hills. 
Summer drouth or singed air 



COMUS 59 

Never scorch thy tresses fair, 

Nor wet October's torrent flood 930 

Thy molten crystal fill with mud. 

May thy billows roll ashore 

The beryl, and the golden ore. 

May thy lofty head be crowned 

With many a tower and terrace round, 935 

And here and there thy banks upon 

With groves of myrrh and cinnamon. 

Come, Lady, while Heaven lends us grace, 
Let us fly this cursed place. 

Lest the sorcerer us entice 940 

With some other new device. 
Not a waste or needless sound 
Till we come to hoUer ground. 
I shall be your faithful guide 

Through this gloomy covert wide; 945 

And not many furlongs thence 
Is your Father's residence. 
Where this night are met in state 
Many a friend to gratulate 

His wished presence and, beside, 950 

All the swains that there abide 
With jigs, and rural dance resort. 
We shall catch them at their sport, 
And our sudden coming there 

Will double all their mirth and cheer: 955 

Come, let us haste; the stars grow high, 
But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky. 

The scene changes, presenting Ludlow town and the President's 
castle; then come in Country Dancers, after them the Attend- 
ant Spirit with the Two Brothers and the Lady, 



60 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

Song 

Spirit. Back, shepherds, back! enough you play 
Till next sunshine holiday. 

Here be, without duck or nod, 960 

Other ti'ippings to be trod 
Of lighter toes, and such court guise 
As Mercury did first devise 
With the mincing Dryades, 
On the lawns and on the leas. 965 

This second Song presents them to their Father and Mother. 

Noble Lord, and Lady bright, 

I have brought ye new delight. 

Here behold so goodly grown 

Three fair branches of your own. 

Heaven hath timely tried their youth, 970 

Their faith, their patience, and their tiixth. 

And sent them here through hard essays 

With a crown of deathless praise. 

To triumph in victorious dance 

O'er sensual folly, and intemperance. 975 

The dances ended, the Spirit epilogizes. 

Spirit. To the ocean now I fly, 

And those happy climes that lie 

Where day never shuts his eye, 

Up in the broad fields of the sky: 

There I suck the liquid air 980 

All amidst the gardens fair 

Of Hesperus and his daughters three 

That sing about the .golden tree: 

Along the crisped shades and bowers 



COMUS • 61 

Revels the spruce and jocund Spring; 985 

The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours 
Thither all their bounties bring; 
There eternal Summer dwells, 
And west winds with musky wing 

About the cedarn alleys fling 990 

Nard and cassia's balmy smells. 
Iris there with humid bow 
Waters the odorous banks that blow 
Flowers of more mingled hue 

Than her purfled scarf can show, 995 

And drenches with Elysian dew 
(List, mortals, if your ears be true) 
Beds of hyacinth and roses. 
Where young Adonis oft reposes. 

Waxing well of his deep wound looo 

In slumber soft, and on the ground 
Sadly sits the Assyrian queen. 
But far above in spangled sheen 
Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced, 
Holds his dear Psyche, sweet entranced, lOOS 

After her wand' ring labors long, 
Till free consent the gods among 
Make her his eternal bride, 
And from her fair unspotted side 

Two blissful twins are to be born, lOio 

Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn. 
But now my task is smoothly done: 
I can fly, or I can run 
Quickly to the green earth's end. 

Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend, ioi5 

And from thence can soar as soon 



MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

To the corners of the moon. 

Mortals that would follow me, 
Love Virtue — she alone is free. 

She can teach ye how to chmb 1020 

Higher than the sphery chime. 
Or, if Virtue feeble were, 
Heaven itself would stoop to her. 



VII 
LYCIDAS 

In this Monody the author bewails a learned Friend unfortunately 
drowned in his Passage from Chester on the Irish Seas, 1637. 
And, by occasion, foretells the ruin,, of our corrupted Clergy, then 
in their height. 

Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more, 

Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere, 

I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, 

And with forced fingers rude 

Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. 5 

Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear. 

Compels me to disturb your season due. 

For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime, 

Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer. 

Who would not sing for Lycidas ? He knew lo 

Himself to sing, and build the lofty rime. 

He must not float upon his watery bier 

Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, 

Without the meed of some melodious tear. 

Begin then. Sisters of the sacred well, 15 

That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring, 
Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string. .VI 

Hence with denial vain and coy excuse; ' 

So may some gentle Muse 

With lucky words favor my destined urn, 20 

63 



^ 



64 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

And, as he passes, turn. 

And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud. 

For we were nursed upon the self -same hill; 
Fed the same flock by fountain, shade, and rill; 
Together both, ere the high lawns appeared 25 

Under the opening eyelids of the morn, 
We drove afield, and both together heard 
What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn. 
Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night, 
Oft till the star that rose at evening bright 30 

Toward heaven's descent had sloped his westering wheel. 
Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute. 
Tempered to the oaten flute; 

Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel 
From the glad sound would not be absent long, 35 

And old Damoetas loved to hear our song. 

But O the heavy change, now thou art gone. 
Now thou art gone, and never must return! 
Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves, 
With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown, 40 

And all their echoes, mourn. 
The wiflows, and the hazel copses green, 
Shall now no more be seen 
Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. 
As killing as the canker to the rose, 45 

Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, 
Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear. 
When first the white-thorn blows, 
Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherd's ear. 

Where were ye. Nymphs, when the remorseless deep 50 
Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas ? 
For neither were ye playing on the steep, 



LYCIDAS 65 

Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie, 

Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high, ^ 

Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream. 55 

Ay me! I fondly dream i^j^ V 

Had ye been there — for what could that have done ? 

What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore, . ^ 

The Muse herself, for her enchanting son, i - 

Whom universal Nature did lament, 60 

When, by the rout that made the hideous roar, 

His gory visage down the stream was sent, 

Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore? 

Alas! what boots it with uncessant care 
To tend the homely slighted shepherd's trade, 65 

And strictly meditate the thankless Muse? 
Were it not better done as others use, ^ ''«-.' 

To sport with Amaryllis in the shade. 
Or with the tangles of Nesera's hair? ^ 

Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise :0 p| 70 
(That last infirmity of noble mind) iN^ \ 

To scorn delights, and live laborious days; % 

But the fair guerdon when we hope to find. 
And think to burst out into sudden blaze, 
Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears, 75 

And slits the thin-spun life. "But not the praise," 
Phoebus replied, and touched my trembhng ears, 
''Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil. 
Nor in the glistering foil 

Set off to the world, nor in broad rumor Hes, so 

But Uves and spreads aloft by those pure eyes. 
And perfect witness of all-judging Jove; 
As he pronounces lastly on each deed, 
Of so much fame in Heaven expect thy meed." 






66 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

^ O fountain Arethuse, and thou, honored flood, 85 

;i^ Smooth-sUding Mincius, crowned with vocal reeds, 
"^That strain I heard was of a higher mood, 
f But now my oat proceeds, 
5 And Hstens to the herald of the sea, 

That came in ^eptune's plea. 90 

e asked the waves, and asked the felon winds, 
?p-^What hard mishap hath doomed this gentle swain? 
\ And questioned every gust of rugged wings 
^ That blows from off each beaked promontory. 
"T They knew not of his story, 95 

c And sage Hippotades their answer brings, 
^ That not a blast was from his dungeon strayed. 
3 The air was calm, and on the level brine 
^ Sleek Panope with all her sisters played. 
>J It was that fatal and perfidious bark, lOO 

'^ Built in the eclipse, and rigged with curses dark, 
That sunk so low that sacred head of thine. 

Next Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow, 
His rnantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge. 
Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge 105 

< Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe. 
V "Ah! who hath reft," quoth he, **my dearest pledge?" 
i^ Last came, and last did go, 
"Y^i^The Pilot of the Galilean lake; 

V*^ Two massy keys he bore of metals twain i lO 

(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain). 
He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake: 
**How well could I have spared for thee, young swain, 
Enow of such as for their bellies' sake 

Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold! ii5 

Of other care they little reckoning make. 



I 



LYCIDAS 67 

Than how to scramble at the shearer's feast, 

And shove away the worthy bidden guest. 

BHnd mouths ! that scarce themselves know how to hold 

A sheep-hook, or have learned aught else the least 120 

That to the faithful herdman's art belongs! 

What recks it them ? What need they ? They are sped, 

And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs 

Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw. 

The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, 125 

But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw, 

Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread. 

Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw 

Daily devours apace, and nothing said. 

But that two-handed engine at the door 130 

Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more." 

Return, Alpheus, the dread voice is past, 
That shrunk thy streams; return, Sicilian Muse, 
And call the vales, and bid them hither cast ') 

Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues. 135 

Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use 
Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks, 
On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks, 
Throw hither all your quaint enamelled eyes. 
That on the green turf suck the honied showers, ..:, 140 
And purple all the ground with vernal flowers. 
Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies. 
The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine. 
The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet, 
The glowing violet, .^ 145 

The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine, 
With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head. 
And every flower that sad embroidery wears; 



68 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed, 

And daffadillies fill their cups with tears, 150 

To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies. 

For so, to interpose a little ease, 

Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise. 

Ay me! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas 

Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurled, 155 

Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides, 

Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide 

Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world, 

Or whether thou, to our moist vows denied, 

Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old, 16O 

Where the great vision of the guarded mount 

Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold. 

Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth, 

And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth. v V^ 

Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more, 165 

For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead, 
vSunk though he be beneath the watery floor. ^ 

So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed, ^ 

And yet anon repairs his drooping head, Ni 

And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore j^ 170 
Flames in the forehead of the morning sky. v? <t^ 

So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high. 
Through the dear might of him that walked the waves. 
Where other groves, and other streams along. 
With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves, 175 

And hears the unexpressive nuptial song. 
In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. 
There entertain him all the saints above. 
In solemn troops and sweet societies, 
That sing and, singing, in their glory move, I80 



LYCIDAS 69 

And wipe the tears forever from his eyes. 

Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more; 

Henceforth thou art the Genius of the shore, 

In thy large recompense, and shalt be good 

To all that wander in that perilous flood. 185 

Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills, 
While the still Morn went out with sandals gray; 
He touched the tender stops of various quills. 
With eager thought warbling his Doric lay; 
And now the sun had stretched out all the hills, 190 

And now was dropped into the western bay. 
At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue: 
To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new. 



VIII 
TO MR. H. LA WES, ON HIS AIRS 

Harry, whose tuneful and well-measured song 
First taught our English music how to span 
Words with just note and accent, not to scan 

With Midas' ears, committing short and long, 

Thy w^orth and skill exempts thee from the throng, 5 

With praise enough for Envy to look wan; 
To after age thou shalt be writ the man 

That with smooth air couldst humor best our tongue. 

Thou honor' st Verse, and Verse must lend her wing 

To honor thee, the priest of Phoebus' quire, lo 

That tun'st their happiest lines in hymn or story. 
Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher • 

Than his Casella, whom he wooed to sing. 
Met in the milder shades of Purgatory. 



70 



IX 

ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN 
PIEDMONT 

Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones 

Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; 

Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old, 
When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones, 
Forget not: in thy book record their groans 5 

Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold 

Slain -by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled 
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans 
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 

To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow lo 

O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway 

The triple Tyrant; that from these may grow 
A hundredfold, who having learnt the way 

Early may fly the Babylonian woe. 



71 



X 
ON HIS BLINDNESS 

When I consider how my light is spent 

Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, 

And that one talent which is death to hide 
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent 
To serve therewith my Maker, and present 5 

My true account, lest he returning chide; 

"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?" 
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent 
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need 

Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best lo 

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state 
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed 

And post o'er land and ocean without rest. 

They also serve who only stand and wait." 



72 



NOTES 

I— ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY 

Milton began this Ode on Christmas Day, 1629. The odes 
on The Passion and The Circumcision were probably intended 
to accompany it. It is significant to find the poet selecting 
such themes already in his youth. 

This Ode, or Hymn, the first of Milton's great poems, is a 
wonderful achievement both in its conception and lyrical 
quality for one so young, just twenty-one, and still at the 
University. Its careful elaboration is too marked; hke L'Al- 
legro and II Penseroso, it was doubtless more or less of a set 
exercise, and the poet had not yet learned to perfect his art to 
the point where it conceals itself. The tendency in it, also, to the 
use of conceit, or extravagant metaphor, characteristic of the 
age, and of Cambridge particularly, is so marked that it has been 
called a piece of frozen Marinism (referring to the assumed 
influence of the Italian, Marini, in promoting such conceit). 
But, none the less, it is one of the most beautiful poems in the 
language. We cannot do better than to recall here Verity's 
fine appreciation of it. "Milton reveals here many of those 
qualities which have won for Paradise Lost a place apart in our 
literature. The Hymn is a foretaste of the epic. We have 
the same learning, full for the classical scholar of far-reaching 
suggestion: the same elevation and inspired enthusiasm of 
tone: even (to note a small but not valueless detail) the same 
happy device of weaving in the narrative names that raise in us 
a vague thrill of awe, a sense of things remote and great and 
mysterious: above all, the same absolute grandeur of style. 
No other English poet rivals Milton in a certain majesty of 
music* a dignity of sound so irresistible that the only thing to 
which we can compare it (and the comparison has been made 
a thousand times), is the strains of an organ. This command 
over great effects of harmony places Paradise Lost beyond 

73 



74 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

competition. It informs the best passages of Milton's prose- 
works. And of all the early poems none displays it so con- 
spicuously as the Nativity Ode.'' 

Lovers of English verse hold it in memory with that other 
transcendent poem on the Nativity by the ill-fated poet 
Crashaw — each so beautiful, though so different. 

Line 1-28. — The opening stanzas are in rhne royal, 
{ababb c c) , but with an Alexandrine, or six-foot iambic verse, 
in place of the usual five-foot verse in the last line. The rime 
royal owed its vogue, which extended throughout the sixteenth 
century, to Chaucer. Milton here follows Spenser's use of it in 
his Four Hymns. 

5. — sages. The prophets. 

6. — deadly forfeit. The penalty of death incurred through 
Adam and removed by Christ. 

10. — wont. Was wont; past tense of won, dwell, be accus- 
tomed — an archaism. 

11. — midst. The middle (one); a Spenserian use. 

15. — Compare Paradise Lost, I, 6. The nine Muses were the 
goddesses of poetry, music, painting, and other "arts." They 
were supposed to inspire those who invoked their aid in the pur- 
suit of these arts; hence, the invocation of the "Muse" by 
modern poets, as, in the present case, an imagined Muse of 
sacred song. — vein. Humor, spirit; here, the spirit or mental 
state in which "song," or poetry, is composed. 

19. — team. The horses which drew the chariot of Phoebus. 

20.— print. Of the hoofs of the "Sun's team." 

21. — spangled. Distributed over and spangling the heavens. 

23. — wizards. The wise men, or Magi; see Matthew, ii, 2. 

24. — prevent. Come before, anticipate; the etymological 
meaning. 

28. — See Isaiah, vi, 6-7. — secret. In a place apart. 

29. — The metre here changes to a stanza devised by Milton 
made up of " tail rime, " a a b c c b, with lines of three and five 
stresses, followed by a couplet consisting of a four-stressed line 
followed by an Alexandrine. Note that in some lines the first 
foot consists of a stressed syllable only. 

33. — gaudy trim. Bright or gay attire, i. e., that of sum- 
mer. 

36. — paramour. Lover. 

39. — guilty. As being under the curse of sin. Notice the 
over-elaborate metaphor, or "conceit." See Camus, 197, n. 



NOTES 75 

41. — pollute. Polluted; an adaptation of Latin pollutus. 
Of many such adaptations in Elizabethan and seventeenth- 
century English, one or two remain to-day — situate, consecrate. 

47. — olive. The olive is associated with peace because of 
the twig brought back by the dove after the Flood. 

48. — the turning sphere. An allusion derived from the 
Ptolemaic theory of the heavens. See Comus, 2, n. 

50. — turtle wing. The wing of the turtle-dove. The turtle- 
dove typifies meekness and undying loyalty. 

51. ^myrtle. The myrtle was sacred to Venus, but there is 
no obvious explanation of its association with peace. 

56. — hooked. With wheels armed with blades like scythes or 
reaping-hooks. Chariots thus armed were used by various 
ancient peoples. 

64. — whist. Hushed. Milton imitates The Tempest, I, ii, 
378, 379, — " Court 'sied when you have, and kist the wild waves 
whist"; i. e., "When you have court'sied and have caused by 
your kissing the wild waves to become whist." Whist, origi- 
nally an interjection, meaning "be quiet," came to be used as a 
participle. Compare hist, II Penseroso, 55. 

68. — birds of calm. The halcyons, or king-fishers, during 
whose breeding period the sea, according to classical belief, re- 
mained calm. Compare the phrase "halcyon days," /. Henry 
VI, I, ii, 131. 

71. — one way. Toward the Saviour's birthplace. — influence. 
The power of the stars, according to the pseudo-science of 
astrology, by which power they are enabled to shape the 
characters and fortunes of men and to determine events. 
Here the power is a tribute to the infant Saviour. 

74. — Lucifer. The morning star, or, as the word implies, 
"light-b ringer." 

81. — as. — As if. 

84. — axletree. Milton frequently uses the classical concep- 
tion of the sun as a chariot. Compare Comus, 95, 96. 

85. — lawn. A pasture, upland; originally a clear space in a 
wood. 

86. — or ere. Here "before" merely, though properly mean- 
ing "before ever," an emphatic form not needed here. 

87. — simply. In simple country fashion. 

88. — than. Obsolete form of then. 

89. — the mighty Pan. Pan was the god of the shepherds, and, 
later, the god of fruitful Nature, the productive universe. Mil- 



76 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

ton here refers to Christ under this name, following Spenser, as 
the great shepherd, the omnipotent one. The term mighty is 
not intended, however, as sometimes explained, to set off 
the "mighty" Pan, Christ, as against the pagan deity. 

91, 92. — A reference to the pastoral convention of the shep- 
herd's life. See the prefatory note to Lycidas below. 

92. — silly. Innocent, harmless; its original sense. 

95. — strook. Obsolete preterit and participle of strike. 

97. — noise. Originally either inharmonious or, as here, har- 
monious sound. 

98. — took. Charmed, bewitched; an obsolete sense. 

100. — close. Cadence, fall. 

102, 103. — The "hollow round" is the sphere of the moon; 
see II Penseroso, 88. The moon is called here by one of the 
names of Artemis or Diana, goddess of the moon as Apollo or 
Phoebus is god of the sun. The name is derived from Mount 
Cynthus in Delos, their reputed birthplace. Cf. Comus, 441, n. 

103. — region. A part of the universe; here, specifically, that 
of the air (as in our "upper regions of the air"). 

106. — its. Used only three times by Milton; here and in 
Paradise Lost, I, 254; IV, 813. This new form of the neuter 
genitive had not yet wholly ousted the original his. — last ful- 
filling. Final completion or fulfilled end, heaven and earth 
now seemingly made one. 

107, 108. — The idea of the "music of the spheres," the divine 
harmony of the universe under law, is a favorite one with Milton. 
See 1. 125, n., and Arcades, 68-72. 

108. — union. Trisyllabic. See for this and similar cases, 
Comus, 1. 298, n. 

110. — globe. An orb or sphere, a compact whole. 

114. — displayed. Unfolded; the etymologic meaning. 

116. — unexpressive. Not to be expressed or described. 

119. — Sons of Morning. The morning stars; see Isaiah, xiv, 
12. The stanza is based on Job, xxxviii, 4-11.— sung. A 
number of preterit forms current in Milton's time are no longer 
good usage. 

120, 121. — Note the rime. Milton here (see also L' Allegro, 
101, 102) used the Southern (Kentish) pronunciation gret. 

125. — Milton drew from Plato the beautiful conception of 
Pythagoras, of the "music of the spheres"; namely, the nine 
crystal spheres (see Comus, 2, n.) in which the heavenly bodies 
were set, having each its siren who, as the sphere revolved, sang 



NOTES 77 

a characteristic note, these notes blending in harmony usually 
unheard (hence the force of 1. 127), but now for once (1. 125) to 
"bless our human ears." 

130. — organ. Milton's favorite instrument. 

131. — ninefold. Of the nine spheres. 

132. — consort. Concord, harmony. 

135. — Age of Gold. The Golden Age when Saturn reigned, 
and man lived in innocence and peace without labor. 

136. — speckled. That is, with the marks of disease. Com- 
pare leprous, 1. 138. 

140. — mansions. Used in its etymologic sense of "abiding- 
places." 

141-143. — In reference to Astraea, i. e., Justice, leaving the 
earth when the Golden Age ended, together with Pudicitia, to 
return when the Golden Age should return. 

146. — tissued. Woven like silver or golden tissue. 

155. — ychained. The y is the remnant of the A. S. participial 
prefix, ge, still retained in German; an archaism imitated from 
Spenser. — sleep. The sleep of death. 

157.— See Exodus, xix, 16-20; Thessalonians, 13-16. 

163. ^session. The technical word for the sitting of a court. 
Trisyllabic like union above. 

168. — The Old Dragon. Satan. See Revelation, xii, and xx, 2. 

172. — swinges. Causes to swing, swings or lashes with vio- 
lence. 

173^. — Milton uses the tradition that at Christ's birth the 
pagan deities left the earth and the pagan oracles became dumb. 

174. — hideous. Causing terror; not as to-day, shocking, re- 
pulsive. 

178. — Delphos. More usually Delphi. 

184. — In reference to the genii loci (1. 186) or local divinities 
of the classic mythology. 

188.— Nymphs. See Comus, 422, n. 

191. — Lars and Lemures. The Lares were spirits of dead an- 
cestors worshipped by the Romans on "the holy hearth," the 
Lararia where their images were kept. The Lemures were 
spirits of evil men, who came at night from their graves to 
trouble the living, and required propitiation. 

194. — Flamens. The priests of the Romans. — quaint. Strange 
or curious; a sense now obsolete. 

195. — The sweating of statues is frequently referred to by 
the ancients as a portent. 



78 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

197.— Peor. Baal-Peor, a title of the chief male god of the 
Phoenician and Canaanitish nations (Numbers, xxv, 18, xxxi, 
16).— Baalim (ba'-a-lim). Plural of Baal, Lord, used to denote 
the gods of these nations in general. 

199.— twice-battered god. Dagon. See 2. Samuel, v, 3, 4. 
200.— Ashtaroth. The chief female deity of the Phoenicians, 
and the same as Astarte, Istar, and Aphrodite, typified by the 
moon among the Phoenicians, and represented with the horns 
of the crescent moon. See 204, n. The titles " heaven's queen 
and mother" belong properly to Cybele and Juno (Verity). 

203. — Lybic Hammon. Ammon, god of oracles in upper 
Egypt, here called Lybic as worshipped in the Libyan Desert, 
was represented as a ram with horns, typifying power; hence the 
phrase "shrinks his horn." 

204. — Thammuz (in the derived Greek myth, the human 
youth, Adonis, beloved by Aphrodite, the Greek Ashtaroth) was 
the sun-god of the Phoenicians. He was killed by a wild boar 
in Lebanon, according to the myth, and brought back by Ashta- 
roth from the lower world. At the festivals at Byblos in his 
honor (held yearly at the time of the reddening of the waters of 
the river Adonis, a local phenomenon ascribed to the blood of 
Thammuz flowing afresh) women lamented his death, and then 
turned to rejoice over his resurrection. Compare Ezekiel, viii, 
14, and Paradise Lost, I, 446. — Tyrian. Of Tyre, i. e., Phoeni- 
cian. 

205. — Moloch. A god of the Canaanites to whom children 
were offered as burnt sacrifices. According to a Rabbinical 
tradition, of apparently ho truth, the children were placed in his 
arms and thence fell into the flames. Milton could read of 
"burning idol" in Sandys's Travels, where the idol is described 
as of brass, filled with fire, whose heat burned to death the sac- 
rifices placed in its arms, while "lest their lamentable shrieks 
should sad the hearts of their parents, the priests of Moloch did 
deaf their ears with the continual clang of trumpets and 
timbrels." 

211. — brutish. As worshipped under the form of animals. 

212. — Isis. The goddess of the earth. — Orus, Horus, god of 
the sun. — Anubis. Son of Osiris, who guided souls in the lower 
world before Osiris for judgment. 

213. — Osiris. The chief god of the Egyptians who became 
identified with Apis and was worshipped under the form of the 
Sacred Bull, the Apis, kept in the temple of Serapis at Memphis. 



NOTES 79 

215. — unshowered. Referring to the fact that Egypt has no rain. 

217. — Osiris was put to death by his brother Set, who, having 
made a richly decorated chest, exactly adapted to Osiris 's figure, 
offered it at a banquet to the person whom it would fit. Osiris, 
when he lay down within it, was caught and thrown into the 
Nile. Milton here uses Plutarch^s treatise on Isis and Osiris 
(Osgood). Osiris finally became ruler of the lower regions and 
judge of the souls of men. 

220. — sable-stoled. In sable or black robes. The stola of the 
Romans was a long robe for women. In modern English use, 
it is a black or embroidered band worn by clergymen about the 
neck and hanging down over the surplice. 

223. — eyn. The archaic plural with -en of eye. 

226. — Typhon. A huge monster of classical mythology, 
human above, but with his thighs folded with serpents. In 
battle with the gods, he was slain by Zeus. Milton evidently, 
following Plutarch, identifies Typhon with Set, the brother and 
enemy of Osiris. 

228. — As Masson notes, the "snaky twine" suggested the 
image of Hercules in the cradle strangling the serpents, which 
Milton applies to the infant Christ. 

229. — A pure conceit, grotesque in its suggestion to modern 
taste. See Comus, 197, n. 

232. — In figurative reference to the belief that ghosts may not 
walk after dawn, being "fettered" by their "magic chains." 
See Comus, 435, n. 

234. — several. Separate. 

236. — night-steeds. The steeds of the chariot of night. See 
Comus, 553, n. — moon-loved maze. Winding or interwoven 
dance, beloved of the moon. 

240. — youngest-teemed. Youngest, wor latest, born. 

242. — A conceit, not a reference to the parable of the Ten 
Virgins. 

243. — courtly. That has become a court. 

244. — bright-harnessed. In bright harness, or armor. 

II— ON SHAKESPEARE. 1630 

The date is fixed by the title in the edition of 1645. It first 
appeared in the Second Folio of Shakespeare, 1632. Milton 
might well dedicate this beautiful tribute to a poet to whom, as 
jioted above, he owed almost as much as he did to Spenser. 



80 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

Title. The title in the edition of 1645 is "On Shakespear, 
1630." In the Second Foho it reads, "An epitaph on the ad- 
mirable dramatic poet W. Shakespeare." 

1. — What needs. What need hath my Shakespeare ... of 
the labor, etc. What=why, for what purpose, is frequent in 
this idiom in Shakespeare. — Shakespeare. Milton spells the 
name without the final e. Many variant spellings of the poet's 
name are found, but the weight of testimony is heavily in favor 
of Shakespeare. 

4. — star-ypointing. The y is the participial prefix, as in 
yclept. See note on the Nativity Ode, 155. Milton, to whom 
it is merely a poetic archaism, does not hesitate to use it with a 
present participle. The sense is "pointing to the stars." 

8. — livelong. "Lasting" in the Second Folio. 

10. — easy numbers. Shakespeare's facility in composition is 
attested by Ben Jonson in his Discoveries, and in the preface to 
the First Folio by his fellow-players, Heminge and Condell, its 
editors (Masson). Milton's art was, on the contrary, "slow- 
endeavoring." 

11. — unvalued. Invaluable. 

12. — Delphic. Oracular (as if uttered at Delphi). 

13. — our fancy of itself bereaving. Shakespeare, addressing 
our fancy, bereaves us of it through " our wonder and astonish- 
ment," and so we are made marble and his monument; a true 
conceit (see Comus, 197, n.), and one frequently used, in its 
general idea (that of a person so transfixed forever by an 
emotion as to become its lasting memorial), by Elizabethan 
poets. Its specific application here is a variation of the fa- 
mous Latin phrase " monumentum aere perennius," "a monu- 
ment more lasting than bronze," often paraphrased by modern 
poets, and indeed, more^than once, in tributes to Shakespeare. 

Ill— ON HIS HAVING ARRIVED AT THE AGE OF 
TWENTY-THREE 

The date is 1631. Note, in reference to Milton's long period 
of preparation, his anxious self-examination, his doubt as to 
the seasonable maturing of his powers, which appears in this 
sonnet, as well as the proud humility and sincere piety of the 
closing reflection. 

4. — shew'th. Note the pronunciation as riming with youth, 
truth. 



NOTES 81 



IV— L'ALLEGRO 

Milton probably wrote L' Allegro and II Penseroso at Horton 
in 1632 or 1633. They seem in their subject, incidental refer- 
ences, and style a natural expression of his life there and his 
stage of poetic development at that time. No manuscript of 
them is in existence. They appear first in the Poems of 1645. 

Milton pictures in these two poems the pleasures of life — true 
pleasures of an innocent kind — as they severally appeal to two 
contrasted temperaments, or to contrasted moods of one per- 
son. On the one hand is L'Allegro, the man of joyous, active 
temperament, delighting in the gayety and brightness of life. 
On the other hand is II Penseroso, the man whose mind is con- 
templative, meditative, tinged with the musing soberness or 
half-sadness which others before Milton had sung as in itself a 
pleasure.} One must guard against reading into these poems, 
with various critics, any definite moral purpose — that L'Allegro 
pictures the careless and thoughtless person, and II Penseroso 
one in whom the impulse to effective action is lost in reflection. 
It seems less likely that Milton meant to picture two persons 
than two contrasted moods he recognized in himself, in one of 
which the contemplative life, in the other the active enjoyment 
of life, seemed to possess an exclusive appeal. And with still 
more certainty, one must guard against reading into them, even 
remotely, any allegory of the contrasted ideals of life of the 
Cavalier and the Puritan. Had such an idea been present in 
Milton's mind, he would have contrived, even though speaking 
as L'Allegro, to hold up to reprobation the reckless pursuit of 
pleasure so general among the Cavaliers. 

The suggestion for both poems seems unquestionably to have 
been the Abstract of Melancholy prefixed to Burton's wonderful 
book, The Anatomy of Melancholy. This is a "Dialogos," in 
which the pleasures and pains of the melancholy temperament 
are set forth in contrast, and might readily suggest the idea of 
companion poems in which not merely the contrasted moods of 
the melancholy man should be set forth, but active pleasures as 
contrasted with contemplative. This fact, if given due weight, 
will dispose of the theories sometimes urged in regard to the 
priority of II Penseroso, and the various conclusions made to 
hang thereupon, such as that Milton plainly favors II Penseroso, 
that he was II Penseroso, and that he intended to point a moral 



82 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

in favor of one as against the other. Further, in respect to 
sources, II Penseroso borrows from Burton's Abstract, and also 
shows the influence of the beautiful song, " Hence, all you vain 
delights," included in Fletcher's play. The Nice Valor, but 
possibly, if tradition is correct, written by Fletcher's twin-soul 
Beaumont. Padelford has endeavored to show that Milton 
borrowed some of the details of L'Allegro from a poem in 
Tottel's Miscellany (second edition), "The sun, when he had 
spread his rays," but the correspondences seem merely acci- 
dental. 

After reading the poems through so as to get an impression of 
each as a unity, compare them in detail to observe the balance 
of form. Both open with a characteristic invocation, and close 
with a like affirmation; the main portions, listing the sights and 
sounds, occupations and pleasures, characteristic of the two 
attitudes toward life, are in careful balance. In considering 
these abstracts, touching lightly and quickly on one thing after 
another, the reader must not be led astray by the somewhat 
curious over-zeal of certain of the older critics, who urged the 
view that Milton was depicting either an actual or an ideal day, 
such as might be spent by the joy-loving or the contemplative 
man. He merely takes up these sights and sounds, occupations 
and pleasures, in a natural order, as they might be seen or 
enjoyed at one time or another. 

After the reader has learned to appreciate the fresh and 
charming beauty of the two poems in imagery and phrasing, it 
is worth noting, in illustration of the character and quality of 
Milton's genius, that they were plainly, as the set character of 
their themes and careful balance of subject and detail indicate, 
a deliberate exercise in poetical composition, rhetorically con- 
ceived and carried out. None the less they attain to a beauty 
that is not merely rhetorical. Milton's poetic energy, the 
exquisite sensitiveness of his taste, were such as to impart to 
themes essentially rhetorical in conception something of the 
magic of true poetry. 

Title. The title (pronounced lal-la'-gro) is Italian, and 
means "The joyful, or happy, [person]." There is no way of 
determining whether Milton gave the two poems their Italian 
titles before or after his visit to Italy. 

1. — Milton adds Melancholy to the offspring of Midnight 
(Death, Sleep, Nemesis, etc.) in classical mythology. Like his 
master, Spenser, and other Renaissance poets, he modified, or 



NOTES 83 

added to, classical mythology when he pleased. Compare II 
Penseroso, 23. 

2. — Cerberus. The monster in the form of a dog with three 
heads that guarded the portals of Hades. 

3. — Stygian. Of the Styx, or in Hades. The Styx was one of 
the four fabled rivers of Hades. 

5. — uncouth. Originally "unknown," hence, as here, un- 
famihar, strange, inspiring dread; also (now only) rough and 
untrained in appearance or demeanor. 

6. — brooding. The sense is "pondering sullenly," but with 
suggestion of the physical sense of covering eggs or fostering a 
brood. 

7. — night-raven. Like the "night-crow," any bird of ill 
omen that cries at night, — the night-owl, night-heron, or night- 
jar. Compare N. E. D. 

10. — dark Cimmerian. Covered by "Cimmerian" darkness, 
the darkness of the mythical country of the Cimmerii on the 
western ocean, perpetually shrouded in black mists. 

11. — free. Properly "of noble birth," but used as an indefi- 
nite term of commendation. 

12. — yclept. Called; past particle of the obsolete clepe, call, 
with the participial prefix y (A.S. ge, Ger. ge). See Nativity 
Ode, 155, n. — Euphrosyne (eu-phros'-i-ne). One of the Three 
Graces. The name means "of happy mind," "cheerful," hence 
1. 13. 

14-16. — Zeus and one of several goddesses are usually re- 
garded as the parents of the Graces. The alternative, 11. 17-24, 
is apparently his own invention. — at a birth. At one birth. 

15. — two sister XJraces Aglaia and Thalia. 

16. — See Comus, 54, 55, n. 

19. — Zephyr. The west wind and harbinger of spring. — 
Aurora. 'The goddess of dawn. Verity suggests that Ben 
Jonson in the Penates makes Aurora the companion of Favonius 
or Zephyr. 

20. — Milton imagines Aurora to go forth for flowers on May- 
day, in accordance with the English custom. 

24. — buxom. Blithe and happy. Originally, "willing to 
bow to, or obey, others' wishes," hence "good-natured," hence 
through "jolly," to "vigorous, plump," as to-day. — debonair. 
Amiable. 

26. — Note the series of personifications as characteristic of 
Milton. 



84 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

27. — Quips. Witty (usually sharp) speeches. — Cranks Say- 
ings containing an amusing turn of fancy and humor. — wanton 
Wiles. Tricks of manner and speech to attract, used "wan- 
tonly " or without restraint. 

28. — Becks. A sign that beckons. — wreathed Smiles. Smiles 
that wreathe the features in curves. 

29. — Hebe. The goddess of youth and cupbearer to the gods. 

32. — A verbal borrowing from Phineas Fletcher's Purple 
Island, IV, 131-: " Here sportful Laughter dwells, here ever- 
sitting. Defies all lumpish griefs, and wrinkled care." 

33, 34.— Compare The Tempest, IV, i, 46.— "Each one, trip- 
ping on his toe." 

34. — fantastic. Following the guidance of fancy. 

36. — Referring to the fact that liberty is peculiarly cherished 
by dwellers in the mountains. 

40. — unreproved. Not meriting reproof; innocent. 

41. — The list of the pleasures that L'AUegro delights in here 
begins. L'AUegro is roused by the lark which sings till the 
dawn rises and comes (it is the dawn that comes to the window), 
"in spite of sorrow" (with its power of bringing cheer and 
banishing the heavy thoughts of night) and bids him good- 
morrow. 

48. — eglantine. Properly the same as sweetbrier, but also 
used for several other roses. 

55. — hoar. Gray; not, as sometimes explained, "covered 
with hoar-frost." 

57. — not unseen. Pointless, unless the balance is noted with 
II Penseroso, 65, who walks "unseen." L'AUegro does not 
avoid company. 

58. — American students should note the characteristic feat- 
ures of the English country-side. 

60. — state. The stately progress or passage of a sovereign or 
other great personage. 

62. — livery. A prescribed dress for attendants, especially 
servants, but not so definitely associated with servants' dress in 
Milton's time as now. 

67. — tells his tale. Counts the tale or known number of his 
flock. This is unquestionably the correct interpretation as 
over against the idea of love-making. 

70. — landskip. Landscape; a form occasionally used to-day. 

71. — russet. Reddish -gray. — lawns. Pastures. — fallows. 
Ploughed land left uncropped to grow fertih. 



NOTES 85 

74. — laboring. In labor, as about to produce rain. 

78. — bosomed. Enclosed as if nestled in the bosom. — tufted 
In clumps; a use now obsolete. 

79. — lies. Lives or dwells; or better, "makes her residence." 

80. — cynosure. See Comus, 341, 342, n. 

83. — Conventional names of shepherds in pastoral verse, as 
Phillis and Thestylis below are of shepherdesses. 

85. — messes. Dishes of food as prepared for the table. 

87. — bower. See Comus, 45, n. 

90. — tanned. Dried in the sun. The verb is omitted in the 
line, as being sufficiently suggested in 1. 87. 

91. — secure. Without care or fear — the etymological sense. 

92. — invite. Invite a visit by the pleasures they offer. 

94. — rebecks. An early instrument of the violin family with 
two or, later, three or four strings. The violin had in Milton's 
time displaced it. In country hamlets it would still be used. 

98. — sunshine. Sunshiny. Compare Comus, 959. 

100. — Ale mulled and spiced. "Nut-brown" is a traditional 
term of praise for ale. 

101, 102. — Milton pronounced feat like fate. Eat is merely a 
spelling for the preterit, pronounced, as now, ate. 

102. — Mab. Queen Mab, queen of the fairies. Similar refer- 
ences to Queen Mab are frequent in fairy literature and incidental 
allusions in the seventeenth century. See Romeo and Juliet, I, 
iv, and the following passage (cited first by Masson) in Ben 
Jonson's masque of The Satyr: 

This is Mab, the Mistress Fairy, 
That doth nightly rob the dairy. 
And she can hurt or help the churning, 
As she please without discerning. . . . 
She that pinches country wenches 
If they rub not clean their benches, 
And with sharper nails remembers 
When they rake not up their embers; 
But, if so they chance to feast her. 
In a shoe she drops a tester. 

103, 104. — A tale having been told of Mab's eating the jun- 
kets, "she" (one of the "maids") tells her story, and "he" (one 
of the "youths ") tells his. This demonstrative use of personal 
pronouns, without definite antecedents, not infrequent in Mid- 
dle English, is rare in Modern English, and is here due to the 
exigencies of Milton's chosen method of brief reference, which 
further causes the difficulty in 11. 104, 105, taken up below. 



86 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

103. — Pinching and pulling was the punishment, or reminder, 
often inflicted upon mortals by fairies. Compare the passage 
above, and Merry Wives, V, v. 

104, 105. — "And he " — the one who was misled by the Friar's 
lantern (and presumably tells about it) — tells also how "the 
drudging goblin," etc. (The reading of the text is that of 1645, 
usually, and rightly, retained by editors.) Milton felt the awk- 
wardness of the passage, and in the edition of 1673 amends 1. 104 
to " And by the Friar's lantern led," thereby throwing out " he," 
and linking all the stories with a single story-teller, "she," of 1. 
103. This has its own awkwardness in the abrupt introduction 
of a new verb, "tells," and it seems better to keep the origi- 
nal reading, in spite of the somewhat forced ellipsis of 1. 104 
paraphrased above.— friar's lantern. This allusion has been 
cleared up by Kittredge in "The Friar's Lantern and Friar 
Rush," Publications of the Modern Language Association, 15 (8), 
415. Milton evidently refers to the will-o'-the-wisp, which be- 
comes, in folk-lore, the Jack-o'-the-Lantern, a malicious sprite 
who, by his light, leads wayfarers astray in marshy places. 
Kittredge shows the strong probability, owing to the part 
friars play in popular stories (a number in Germany carry 
lights), that a friar with a lantern may have become one of the 
many forms in which the will-o'-the-wisp appears in popular 
mythology. 

105. — the drudging goblin. Robin Goodfellow, or Hobgoblin, 
a house elf, who might either play tricks, or, if properly treated 
by the setting forth of a cream bowl, might render most efficient 
service. Shakespeare's Puck is a transformed Robin Good- 
fellow. Among various names he or similar sprites bear are: 
" Lob-lie-by-the-fire " (compare Mrs. Ewing's tale of that 
title) and brownie (compare Miss Mulock's Adventures of a 
Brownie). 

110. — lies. The change of construction is justified by the 
vigor and vividness thereby gained. 

114. — matin. Explained as a " morning note or song " in the 
dictionaries, the use starting with this passage. It would seem 
more probable that Milton used the word in its common sense of 
early morning service (matins being still often said), and used 
the singular through Shakespeare'^ influence {Hamlet, I, v, 89) 
or merely for euphony. 

117. — then. Not used literally, but to mark transition to 
another class of pleasures — after the country, the city. 



NOTES 87 

120. — weeds. Garments; now used only specifically of mourn- 
ing. — triumph. A public festivity as a pageant or tourna- 
ment, especially the latter, as here. 

122. — rain influence. That is, like that of the stars. See 
Nativity Ode, 71, n. 

125. — Hymen. The god of marriage, conventionally repre- 
sented as clad in a saffron robe, with a torch (not taper, as here) 
in his hand. 

127. — pomp. A formal or solemn procession. 

128. — mask. See prefatory note to Comus below. — pageantry. 
Pageants; scenes or tableaux displayed in public on festive 
occasions. 

132.— Ben Jonson (1573-1637) represents the "classical" im- 
pulse, as Shakespeare does the "romantic." He is famous 
chiefly for his "comedy of humors," depicting special traits of 
character (called humors), intensified in single characters, and 
for his masques, and for his criticism. He was the first great 
English critic and, by his personal force, his erudition, and his 
own charmingly poetic and beautifully accurate verse, exercised, 
chiefly through personal intercourse, a most important influence 
on the younger poets of the seventeenth century and on the 
trend of poetry toward classicism. — sock. The low shoe worn 
by players of comedy in Greece; hence used to typify com- 
edy, as the buskin, or high shoe, tragedy. 

134. — It has been pointed out that this characterization of 
Shakespeare is far from apt, unless Milton means by "wood- 
notes wild" merely much the same as the "easy numbers" of 
his sonnet On Shakespeare. It is not just to argue that Milton 
grew to depreciate Shakespeare, as Verity suggests. He might 
well regard him as a marvel, and yet differ with him in respect 
to the proper form of tragedy and other matters of poetic 
art. 

135. — eating cares. From Horace, Odes, I, xviii, 4. 

136. — Lydian airs. Music in the Lydian mode was thought of 
by the ancients as soft and tender. 

139. — bout. A turn or change. 

145. — Orpheus. The wonderful singer and player in Greek 
myth who could draw beasts and even inanimate things after 
him by his music. His music led to the surrender of his dead 
wife Eurydice by Pluto on condition he should not look back 
as she followed, till both were out of Hades, a condition he 
broke, thus losing her forever. 



88 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

V— IL PENSEROSO 

[For preface, see L' Allegro, above.] 

Title. Milton has been accused of error in using penseroso 
both as regards its form, the contention being that the proper 
form is pensieroso, and as regards the special sense assumed of 
one inclined to sober reflection, contemplation. In the Italian 
of his time, however, it did have both this form and meaning. 
The pronunciation is el pen-sli-ro'-so. 

1. — Verity suggests the influence of certain lines in Sylvester's 
Henry the Great: 

Hence, hence, false Pleasures, momentary Joys; 
Mock us no more with your iiluding Toys, 
... all World's-hopes as dreams do fly. 

The student must not forget to note the close balance of struct- 
ure with L' Allegro. 

3, — bested. Help, avail, profit. 

4. — fixed. Not to be swayed easily; firm. — toys. Idle 
trifles. 

6. — fond. Foolish; the etymological meaning. 

10. — pensioners. Attendants (e. g., the body-guard of a 
sovereign) on pension or regular pay. — Morpheus. One of the 
gods of dreams, and in stock poetical reference the god of sleep. 

12. — It must be remembered that Milton is using Melancholy, 
in a temporary Elizabethan use, of a sober, pensive frame of 
mind, touched with sadness, but not unpleasantly. 

14. — hit. Fall in, or agree, with; a metaphorical sense. 

18. — Memnon. King of the Ethiopians, famed for his 
beauty (Odyssey, XI, 522). Milton may have imagined a sister 
like him or have known of a sister mentioned by Dictys Cre- 
tensis. 

19. — starred. Placed among the constellations. — Ethiop 
queen. Cassiopeia. The Nereids (" Sea-nymphs ") were avenged 
through a sea-monster sent by Poseidon to ravage Ethiopia. 
Andromeda, the daughter of Cassiopeia, was offered up to the 
monster, but was rescued by Perseus. 

23. — Vesta. Goddess of the hearth. Saturn (I. 24), father 
of Jove and displaced by him and driven into exile, may here 
typify Solitude. Milton invents the union and parentage, and 
his meaning is not apparent. The simplest explanation would 



NOTES 89 

be that Melancholy is the child of solitude and devotion to one's 
hearth as opposed to the preoccupations of the outer world. 
There may also be suggestion of Saturn's characteristic melan- 
choly, but this is of a different sort, being morose, from that 
which Milton is praising. 

25. — Saturn's reign. The Golden Age. See Nativity Ode, 135, n. 

29. — Ida. Mount Ida in Crete. 

30; — fear of Jove. Saturn devoured his children, all save 
Jove, who was removed and hidden in Crete, and through the 
gift of the thunderbolt by the giants, was able to overthrow his 
father. 

33. — grain. Dye, or color (see Comus, 750, n.). It is not 
probable that Milton here intends the specific sense of scarlet 
(grain being used for cochineal), or a purple derived from it. 

35. — stole. Here, a cloak, hood, or veil; compare Nativity 
Ode, 220. — cypress lawn. Crape. Cypress (so-callpd as origi- 
nally brought from Cyprus) was different from lawn, though 
the fabrics were similar; the meaning is a crape thin like lawn. 

39. — commercing. Holding commerce or intercourse. 

43. — sad. Serious. 

46. — diet. Dine. No mythological allusion is intended here; 
Milton uses "gods" to imply the highest beings. 

48. — Jove's altar. On Helicon, referred to by Hesiod. 

54. — See Ezekiel, x. According to mediaeval theologians, the 
cherubim among the angels had as their peculiar property wis- 
dom and contemplation of divine things. 

55. — hist. Summon with a word (as "hist! ") or gesture im- 
posing silence in obedience. This rare use of hist as a verb 
starts with this passage. 

66. — Philomel. The nightingale; so called from Philomela, 
sister of Procne, who was ravished by Tereus, Procne's husband, 
and her tongue cut out, upon which she was changed to a 
nightingale (in one account). 

58. — Compare Comus, 251. 

59. — The chariot drawn by dragons really belongs to Ceres, 
not Diana. 

60. — accustomed. Perhaps, as Verity suggests, Milton was 
thinking of some special tree in the garden at Horton. 

61. — The student should specially note this famous passage 
on the nightingale, a favorite theme with English poets from 
the Anglo-Saxon riddle to Keats's Ode and Matthew Arnold's 
Philomela. 



90 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

74. — Note the special beauty, the magical quality of these 
lines, in evoking a picture realized through the senses both of 
sight and sound. 

77. — Milton rarely gets as near prose as this. 

83. — bellman. The night-watchman, who called the hours, 
often in a rime that closed with an invocation or bless- 
ing. 

87. — out-watch the Bear. Watch till dawn, as the Bear never 
sets. The Greater and Lesser Bears are northern constellations, 
stars of which form what in America is more usually called the 
Dipper. 

88. — Hermes. Hermes Trismegistus, a mythical Egyptian 
king, the reputed author of the Hermetic books on various 
subjects. The Hermetic books, parts of which have been 
handed down under that name, are really Neo-Platonist writ- 
ings, of the fourth century of the school of Alexandria, on God, 
the Cosmos, and similar subjects, written in opposition to He- 
brew and Christian theology. The name of Hermes is often 
called in by alchemists, astrologers, and magicians in the Middle 
Ages. Milton cites him probably merely as a great and obscure 
name, and not because of any personal familiarity with his 
assumed works. — unsphere. Call from its assigned sphere in 
the heavens. See Comus, 2, 3, n. 

93-96. — And of those demons. Tell is understood after and, 
being implied in unfold above. The demons, or spirits, of fire, 
air, water, and earth, are respectively the Salamanders, Sylphs, 
Nymphs, and Gnomes. They belong to Neo-Platonist and 
mediaeval mysticism and pseudo-science, not to Plato, particu- 
larly as regards the doctrine of their connection with the planets 
and the elements they inhabit. Verity cites Pope's amusing 
use of these spirits in Rape of the Lock, I, 57-65. 

97. — gorgeous. Clad in rich and glowing array, but implying 
splendor and majesty in general. 

98. — sceptred pall. Royal mantle. The pall is the mantle 
worn by tragic actors. 

99, 100. — A reference, in brief, to the chief Greek tragedies. 
These would be (as enumerated by Verity) for Thebes, the 
Seven Against Thebes of iEschylus, and the CEdipus Rex and 
Antigone of Sophocles; for Pelops's line, the Oresteia of iEschy- 
lus, the Electra of Sophocles, and the Electro and two dramas on 
Iphigeneia by Euripides; for the tale of Troy, the Hecuba and 
Troades. 



NOTES 91 

100. — divine. Used of Troy, according to Newton, as built 
by the gods. 

101, 102. — Not necessarily, as has been assumed, a reference 
to Shakespeare in particular. 

102.— buskined. See L' Allegro, 132, n. 

104. — Musaeus. The son or pupil of Orpheus, here probably, 
as Verity notes, representing lyric verse. 

105-108.— See U Allegro, 145, n. 

109-115. — Chaucer, to whom Milton's master, Spenser, owed 
so much. Chaucer had long been recognized as the father of 
English poetry, and Milton appropriately cites him in a reference 
designed to include by suggestion the great bards of all times 
and countries. The reference is to the Squire's Tale, a choice 
of special interest in view of the fact that it was only "half 
told," left unfinished, and of its strikingly romantic character. 
In the story, a knight visits the court of Cambinskan (the 
Cambuscan of Milton), the "Tartar king," and presents him 
with a horse of brass that will carry its owner wherever he 
wishes, and a sword that will cut anything and can heal any 
wounds it makes, and also gives to Canacee (Canace) a ring which 
enables the wearer to understand the speech of birds and the 
uses of all plants, and a mirror which givers warning of misfor- 
tune, enemies, and unfaithful lovers. Camball and Algarsife 
are the Cambalo and Algarsyfe of Chaucer, Cambinskan's sons. 
The reference in 1. 112 takes its point from Chaucer's reference 
to a fight for Canacee's hand. 

113. — virtuous. Possessing virtues, or special properties. 

116. — Milton is here thinking of Spenser and the Itahan 
writers of epic romance, Ariosto, Tasso, and Boiardo. 

118. — tourneys. Tournaments. — trophies hung. Arms or 
standards won in battle, hung up in token of victory. 

121. — pale. Dim, faint, lacking in some special quality under- 
stood. 

122. — civil-suited. In civil or simple dress, not "tricked and 
frounced" (1. 123). 

123. — tricked. Tricked up with adornments. — frounced. 
With the hair curled. 

124. — Attic boy. Cephalus, with whom Aurora, the goddess 
of dawn, fell in love. 

125. — Essentially of the nature of a conceit, but saved by the 
beauty of the diction. 

128.— his. See the Nativity Ode, 106, n. 



92 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

130. — minute drops. Falling slowly at intervals as if of a 
minute. Compare "minute guns." 

134. — brown. Dusky, dark in color, — -the original sense. — 
Sylvan. The god of fields and forests. 

135. — monumental oak. Like, or suggesting, a monument in 
its age, size, or strength. It is not impossible that Milton may 
have meant "used for making monuments or memorials." 

145. — consort. Harmony; cf. Nativity Ode, 132. 

147-150. — This passage has caused a great deal of difficulty. 
It is plain that the dream, displayed in an airy stream of lively 
portraiture (scenes, as vivid as if real, flowing after each other in 
its unsubstantial fabric), is "softly on my eyelids laid." But 
the exact meaning of "wave at his wings" seems impossible of 
precise definition. The phrase would seem to mean "let some 
dream waver and pass at the waving of the wings of sleep," the 
verb "wave" applying both to sleep and the dream. 

154. — Genius. The special deity of a place in classic mythol- 
ogy- 

156. — cloister's pale. A roofed walk, with the roof borne on 
one or both sides by a row (the "pale" of the verse) of pillars, 
at the side of a building, or connecting two buildings. They 
commonly form part of either college or religious buildings, but 
Milton here uses the cloister as typical of the colleges of a 
university, such as may be seen in Cambridge or Oxford. 

157. — embowed roof. The arched roof of a Gothic cathedral. 

158. — antic. Covered with fantastic tracery or grotesque 
decoration, as the pillars of mediaeval cathedrals commonly are. 
Verity rightly defends this reading as over against antique, old. 
He points out that the word in the editions Milton oversaw is 
spelled antick while in U Allegro, 128, the spelling antique is 
used for the word meaning old. It may also be pointed out that 
the word is technical, does not mean "curious" or "strange" 
but describes a form of ornamentation peculiarly characteristic 
of cathedrals, and that it is in balance with "richly dight," or 
decorated, of the next line. — massy proof. So in the original 
editions, and better so retained, though proof is rather adjective 
than noun. If explained as a noun, massy is an adjective, 
and the phrase is elliptical for "of massy proof," that is, of 
proved or sufficient stability through their massiveness. 

169. — hairy gown. The garment of hair-cloth worn by 
hermits in mortification of the flesh. 

170, 171.— spell of. Study over, learn of. 



NOTES 93 

VI— COMUS 

TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF COMPOSITION 

Milton's friend, the noted musician Henry Lawes, to whom 
he wrote a sonnet which is included in this volume, numbered 
among his pupils certain of the fifteen children of the first Earl 
of Bridgewater. When the Earl, who had been made Lord 
President of Wales in 1631, entered upon his duties in 1634, his 
induction into office was celebrated at the vice-regal residence, 
Ludlow Castle, by festivities, one feature of which was the 
masque of Comus. The music of Comus was written by Henry 
Lawes, and the text, at his request, by Milton. Milton's earlier 
masque, or rather fragment of one. Arcades, had been written in 
honor of the Dowager Countess of Derby, the mother of the 
Countess of Bridgewater — doubtless also at Lawes's request, 
though his connection with it is not actually known. This later 
and highly finished production was given on Michaelmas night, 
1634. It was probably written early in that year. Lawes 
staged it, and took part in it in the character of the Attendant 
Spirit. 

THE THEME OF " COMUS " 

Milton devised a most happy idea for the main theme of the 
masque. Three of the children of the Earl, two brothers and 
their sister, "The Lady," are supposed to have become lost on 
their way to the festivities in their father's honor. The Lady 
falls into the power of an enchanter, but is finally released 
through the aid of the Attendant Spirit. These parts, the 
Elder and the Second Brother and the Lady, were taken 
respectively by the Earl's third but eldest surviving son, John, 
Viscount Brackley, twelve years old, his next younger brother, 
Thomas, and Lady Alice Egerton, the eleventh daughter, then 
not more than thirteen years old. Both the sons had acted 
before at Whitehall in Carew's Ccelum Britannicum, and an 
elder sister. Lady Penelope, had acted at Court in Jonson's 
Masque of Chloridia. By Milton's plan the children were at 
the same time taking parts in the masque and acting in their 
own characters. In reading the play, it will be seen how 
effective this device is and how much pleasure it must have given 
their parents through Milton's use of it for purposes of compli- 
ment. There is no ground whatsoever for the story that an 



9'4 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

actual incident of the children's becoming lost was used by 
Milton. Whether other gentlefolk took part in. the principal 
characters is not known; very probably the bands of maskers 
were, as usual, in whole or in part gentlefolk. Professional 
performers were, no doubt, also included as usual. 

PUBLICATION AND TEXT 

Comus was first printed in 1637 by Lawes, with perhaps, as 
has been pointed out on the testimony of the motto on the 
title-page, some unwillingness on Milton's part; his name cer- 
tainly is not given. In his dedication to Lord Brackley, Lawes 
says, " Although not openly acknowledged by the author, yet it 
is a legitimate offspring, so lovely and so much desired that the 
often copying of it hath tired my pen to give my several friends 
satisfaction, and brought me to a necessity of producing it to 
the public view." A letter of Sir Henry Wotton is also often 
cited in evidence of the impression it produced. The two 
editions of the Poems in Milton's lifetime, 1645 and 1673, con- 
tain it with separate title-page, and Milton's original draft at 
Cambridge and what is assumed to be the stage copy (the 
Bridgewater MS.) are extant. The present text is from the 
edition of 1645,. collated with the facsimile of Lawes's edition of 
1637, with reference, when necessary, to that of 1673, Todd's 
collation of the MSS., and the facsimile of the Cambridge MS. 
It may be added that the masque has been frequently performed 
in several much altered versions in the eighteenth and nineteenth 
centuries, and the original version has at various times been 
given memorial performances, the last noted being in 1909. As 
a spectacle it could hardly fail to be beautiful, but those who 
have seen it say that it is far more effective dramatically than 
one might expect, the beauty of the verse making up for the 
slowness of the action. 

"comus" as a masque 

Comus is a masque with a dramatic theme developed some- 
what more than is usual or at least common. To understand 
this, we must understand clearly what a masque is. The 
masque came from Italy, and was at first merely a dance, or 
series of dances, presenting an allegorical subject, performed 
by bands of maskers as a setting for a ball. In course of time 



NOTES 95 

choruses, leading characters with individual songs, soliloquies, 
and dialogues, to present the story to better advantage, and 
a scenic background with elaborate changes and spectacular 
effects, were added. An addition of some interest artistically, 
though not important historically, due to the greatest of 
masque writers, Ben Jonson, was the inclusion within the 
masque proper of one or more antimasques— dances and 
choruses of a humorous, fantastic, or grotesque character, 
serving as a relief and foil to the beauty of the masque. It 
should be noted that while the part the leading characters took 
came necessarily to assume a certain importance, the dances 
and choruses, performed by bands of maskers, remained the 
essential and characteristic feature. Delightful, often marvel- 
lous, from the spectacular point of view, these entertainments 
must have been. Poet, musician,' artist, were at rivalry in 
achieving the joint masterpiece — quarreUing, no doubt, not in- 
frequently, like the master hands in this kind, Ben Jonson and 
Inigo Jones. Extremely costly — several, it is known, cost the 
modern equivalent of $60,000 and one $400,000 — masques re- 
mained what we should call private theatricals, given under 
professional direction and with professional aid, and were 
practically confined to the Court circle and the "Revels" of 
the four great legal societies, the Inns of Court. 

Comus includes all the features of the masque, even the anti- 
masque, with full justice done the operatic features and dances; 
but it differs from the pure masque (like several others) in pos- 
sessing a true dramatic plot, slight but still a plot, and in the 
fact that the development of this plot in the action of the 
leading characters is intended to hold the chief interest of the 
auditors. Milton, however, has been careful to keep the dra- 
matic element in congruity with the operatic element, through 
its allegorical character and, indeed, its very slightness of theme. 
On the other hand, he has weighted the poem with a didactic 
purpose totally out of keeping, in the directness and vigor of its 
expression, with the spirit of the masque. Even the beauty 
of his diction cannot prevent one's feeling this in certain pas- 
sages. Yet it remains true that he has contrived with admirable 
art a poetic drama that blends into masque, when the fitting 
moment comes, without loss of artistic unity. 



96 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 



SOURCES OF THE POEM 

The sources of the poem call for a moment's attention, rather 
as a matter of interest than as helping us to its better under- 
standing. The main theme of a sister entranced by a magician 
and released by her brothers, Milton found in George Peele's 
play, The Old Wives^ Tale, printed in 1595. The debt appears 
plainly in points of detail, such as the fact that the magician 
learned his arts from his mother, that a potion is used to en- 
trance the sister, that aid is extended to the brothers in her 
release, in this case by an old man himself versed in magic. 
For the magician, Milton substituted Conius, a personification 
of sensual pleasure in late classical mythology, who derived his 
name apparently from the kw/xos or company Of revellers, which 
celebrated festivities in honor of Dionysos or Bacchus, the god 
of wine, after the vintage. Comus had been used by Ben 
Jonson in the masque of Pleasure Reconciled, but the character 
is there a burlesque allegorical portraiture of coarse gluttony 
and lust. Milton was undoubtedly influenced rather by the 
Latin play, Comus, 1608, of Hendrik van der Putten, reprinted 
at Oxford in the year Milton wrote his masque. The Comus of 
Puteanus much more closely resembles Milton's conception in 
the elements of dangerous charm and allurement, though it falls 
far short of it. Milton also adds enormously to the impressive- 
ness of Comus by associating him with Circe and gifting him 
with like powers learned from his mother. The direct sug- 
gestion for this may have been derived from Browne's Inner 
Temple Masque (1614), the theme of which is the adventures of 
Ulysses on Circe's island. The idea was no less felicitous than 
bold: by thus associating his creation with the well-known 
mjrth, Milton at once endowed it for the spectator with a suit- 
able background and atmosphere. Equally felicitous was his 
use of the EngUsh "Sabrina," the "nymph" of the Severn, as 
the means whereby the Lady is released from her enchantment. 
With Sabrina's story (for which see the Notes) Milton was 
familiar in the original, Geoffrey of Monmouth, as well as in 
Spenser, Drayton, and elsewhere; he told it himself later in his 
History of Britain. It is in this portion of Comus in which 
Sabrina appears that we find most unmistakably the influence 
of Fletcher's pastoral play. The Faithful Shepherdess, composed 
before 1625, which had recently been given in 1633, 1634. As 



NOTES 97 

■ often noted, the whole masque is indebted in its spirit to this 
play, but Verity has rightly laid stress upon the special indebted- 
ness attested by the identity of motive, namely, the strength of 
purity, and the fact that the disenchantment scene markedly 
betrays, in the conception of the nymph Sabrina, in its incidents, 
and in its lyric movement, the spell which Fletcher's genius 
exercised over Milton. A final reference must be made to 
Milton's continual indebtedness, here as elsewhere, to Enghsh 
poets and the classics, for imagery and phrasing, transmuted, 
however, to a special fitness and perfection of beauty unequivo- 
cally his own. 

THE PLACE OF " COMUS " IN MILTON's LIFE AND IN LITERATURE 

In its relation to Milton's development, the poem bears wit- 
ness to the fruition of his years of study and meditation at the 
University; in its expression of his ideal of the inviolable sover- 
eignty of virtue, especially as centred in purity of word and 
thought; in the perfected refinement of taste it displays; and 
in the garnered wealth of thought and imagery drawn from his 
reading. In its relation to its time, the poem represents, on the 
one hand, the attitude of the more broad-minded Puritans who 
would not condemn the drama or music or dancing as evil in 
themselves, but only their abuse; and, on the other hand, it 
clearly typifies in Comus and his crew the evils in Court and 
State against which the Puritan set his face, and over which, as 
Milton felt, virtue, though delivered for a time into captivity, 
must ultimately triumph. But of greatest importance is the 
relation of the poem to the reader of to-day as a precious part 
of his inheritance in English literature. Critics have pointed 
out defects in the poem; for example, its lack of movement, its 
overweight of moral purpose, the frequent didacticism of its 
dialogue, and notably its lack of humor, a fundamental defect 
in Milton which, as Verity has truly said, more than aught else 
makes Milton Shakespeare's inferior. With these faults of the 
poem the reader need concern himself but little. What does 
concern him is the beauty of the verse, both in the dramatic 
and lyrical portions, and the beauty of the imagery and phras- 
ing. These are a delight in themselves and afford also an 
admirable discipline in poetic taste. Moreover, the poem 
enforces the noblest ideals of virtue. Rare indeed is it that in 
a poem with such a theme, in passages demanding didactic 



98 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

methods that are flatly at variance with poetic inspiration, and 
with the proper agencies of poetic expression, the sustained 
elevation of the poet is such that he hardly perceptibly flags 
in his level flight. 

Title. In the MSS., Lawes's edition, and the 1645 and 1673 
editions supervised by Milton, the play is merely entitled A 
Masque. The title of the 1645 edition, for example, reads, "A 
Mask of the same Author presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634, 
before the Earl of Bridgewater, then President of Wales. 
Anno Dom. 1645." 

The Persons. — Attendant Spirit. The messenger of Jove sent 
to attend the Lady in her peril; an adaptation by the poet of 
the Christian conception of a guardian angel to his mythological 
setting. — habit. Dress. 

Comus. The god of evil indulgence in pleasures of the 
sense; not merely an embodiment, as in Jonson, of reckless 
mirth and gluttonous revelry, but a tempter, gifted with arts of 
persuasion, and sinister as the master spirit of midnight rites. 
See the prefatory note. — crew. The god's troop of fellow 
revellers, partly transformed to beasts. 

The Lady, First Brother, Second Brother. The Lady repre- 
sents the virtue of innocence and purity, helpless in one sense 
as possessing no physical powers of defence, but triumphing 
through courage and the powerlessness of evil to harm, to injure 
pure virtue. The brothers typify virtue active and militant 
that, by heavenly guidance, puts the power of evil to flight. 
The allegory, plain enough, must not be strained too far; the 
story has interest as a story, and was primarily devised by 
Milton to provide little Lady Alice and her brothers with suit- 
able parts. Because the play was written for them, and the 
parts they play are half make-believe, half in their real charac- 
ters, Milton does not give them names different from their own. 
See the prefatory note above. 

Sabrina. The nymph of the river Severn. In classical 
mythology, the nymphs were minor deities of trees, mountains, 
fountains, rivers, and the sea. Sabrina was a mortal made 
immortal and the goddess of the river, as told in 11. 825 ff. Lud- 
low, where the masque was given, is on a branch of the Severn, 
the Teme, but the goddess of the chief river is invoked to help 
the Lady — fittingly enough in any case, but also because of her 
romantic story. 

The chief persons only are mentioned who " presented " (pre- 



NOTES 99 

sented the play, or acted it). We know that Henry Lawes 
took the part of the Spirit, but not who represented Comus and 
Sabrina — both parts demanding special skill. 

The first Scene. This has reference to the stage-setting 
rather than to the action of the play. Shifts of scene take place 
at 11. 658 and 957. 

discovers. Discloses. A curtain or screen was probably 
used, the removal of which disclosed the scene on the stage. 

descends or enters. The Spirit may either descend a slope, 
representing a hill at the back, a common device, or enter at the 
side. It is possible that an actual descent from above may be 
meant, as the character is a spirit and elaborate spectacular 
devices were used in the masques. 

1-92. This speech is not a soliloquy, but a prologue ad- 
dressed to the audience, just as at the close the children are 
presented from the stage directly to their parents. It corre- 
sponds in length to the closing scene (11. 958-1023), which 
serves as an epilogue. 

1. — Jove's court. Here in the heavens, not as in the earlier 
classical conception, on Olympus. The phrase "Jove's high 
court" occurs in Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess, II, ii, from 
which Milton drew. 

2. — mansion. Abiding-place; the etymologic sense. — those. 
This demonstrative does not introduce a relative clause under- 
stood or, as sometimes explained, convey the sense of "well- 
known." It introduces two phrases, both referring to the same 
thing, one descriptive, the second explanatory of what the first 
refers to, an idiom more frequent and famihar in colloquial use, 
in phrases such as "that rascal of a servant," "those dogs of 
Saracens." 

3. — bright. Of resplendent beauty, not merely resplendent 
— a traditional poetic use. Compare "Lady bright," 1. 966. — 
insphered. A figurative use of the theory usually ascribed to 
Ptolemy, but developed by several Greek philosophers, which 
explained the motion of the heavenly bodies by supposing them 
fixed in concentric crystal spheres which turn about the earth, 
the relation of their axes and the manner in which they are 
geared within each other being most ingeniously assumed in 
certain developments of the system to account for the apparent 
motion of the bodies in the sky. Milton, here and elsewhere, 
represents these spheres as the abiding-places of celestial spirits 
or the spirits of the great dead. Cf. Lycidas, 125, n. 



100 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

4. — serene. Frequently in Milton (as generally in Shake- 
speare) dissyllabic adjectives and participles which have their 
accent on the last syllable shift it to the first syllable, if they 
come before an accent. Possibly the accent was not shifted, 
but the two syllables pronounced with even stress. Compare 
for other examples, 11. 11, 37, 39 {forlorn before unaccented and 
retains its usual accentuation), 69, 200, 273. The line recalls the 
description in the Odyssey, VI, 42-45, of the abode of the gods. 

5. — dim. Not, as explained by various editors, "dimmed by 
distance as seen from the Spirit's home." The word is used in 
its original sense, "not bright, shadowy, dark, dusky" (so fre- 
quently in Shakespeare, even with reference to the color of the 
violet, and compare 1. 278, "dim darkness"). Here the word 
points the contrast between the limitless and radiant upper 
heaven and the narrow and dark earth. 

6-8. — An elliptical construction. The words "in which." 
felt to be necessary after and in 1. 6 are contained by implication 
in the here of 1. 7: "Which men call Earth, and [in which] . . . 
[they] strive," etc. Ellipses of the relative of this character, 
impossible now, may be found occasionally in prose at this 
time and later. 

7. — pestered. Restrained (as by a clog, load, etc.) from free 
movement. Milton's use of the word with pinfold, a pound for 
cattle, may indicate that he had the original meaning of pester 
in mind, to hobble an animal to graze. 

9-14. — Specific Christian conceptions and Scriptural refer- 
ences are included in each of these six lines. The passage is 
an excellent example of Milton's unhesitating freedom in blend- 
ing Hebrew and Christian with classic conceptions. Note espe- 
cially that he describes the true servants wearing the crown 
of sainthood as sitting among the enthroned gods. 

9. — the crown that Virtue gives. The heavenly crown given 
to those who achieve sainthood. "Now they do it to obtain a 
corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible" (1. Corinthians, 
ix, 25), "Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a 
crown of life" (Revelation, ii, 10). 

10. — this mortal change. Change of, or produced by, death. 
The use of the demonstrative is not idiomatic; it should be the 
or that. It has not hitherto been noted that Milton obviously 
has in mind the beautiful passage in Corinthians, xv, 51 ff., 
used in the Burial Service: "Behold, I show you a mystery; 
we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a mo- 



NOTES 101 

ment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the 
trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, 
and we shall he changed. For this corruptible must put on in- 
corruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." 

11. — The student must guard against the easy and current 
error of supposing that the enthroned gods occupy the sainted 
seats — an error prevented, it is hoped, in this edition, by the use 
of commas before and after "amongst the enthroned gods." 
It has long been pointed out that Milton's reference is to the 
four and twenty seats of the elders in Revelation, v, 4 (which 
see), but it has not been noted that, as shown by Revelation, v, 
8-10, the elders typify those who have won sainthood, i. e., 
the "true servants." 

12. — be. The old plural of the present indicative of the verb 
"to be," now supplanted in standard Enghsh by the Scandi- 
navian "are," but retained in rustic and provincial use. — by 
due steps. By steps set in the path of duty, that is, by ob- 
servance of their duty; compare II Penseroso, 155. 

13. — just hands. As being hands of "just" men, "justified" 
before God; the familiar Bibhcal use. — golden key. See the 
note on Lycidas, 110, 111. 

16. — ambrosial. Not " of or pertaining to ambrosia, the food 
of the gods," but by figurative transfer of its etymological 
sense, "immortal, hence celestial, heavenly." 

17. — mould. Bodily form; human shape, "sin-worn," as 
defaced by the curse of original sin. 

18-23. — After the overthrow of Saturn, his sons divided his 
realm, Jupiter taking the upper world and the mainland, 
Pluto the underworld, Neptune the seas and streams and the 
islands of the sea. Neptune's portion accordingly lay between 
that of high Jove, Jupiter himself, and of Pluto, "nether Jove". 
The epithets "high" and "nether" (though not thus put in 
antithesis) go back to Homer (see Osgood). 

23. — unadorned. Otherwise not adorned, its surface being 
.level and unvarying, unlike that of the earth. 

24. — tributary gods. The lesser deities of the sea who 
owed him tribute and allegiance. Cf. 11. 870 ff. 

25. — by coiurse. In due or proper order. — several govern- 
ment. Separate government; that is, one to each. 

26. — sapphire. Used as a gem of appropriate color. 

27.— But this Isle. Cf. Richard II, II, i, 40 ff. Note care- 
fully the significance of the but. The mistake has frequently 



102 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

been made of supposing that it sets off the " blue-haired deities " 
of 1. 29 against the "tributary gods" of 1. 24. This is not the 
case. It sets off quarters, 1. 29, against "commits to several 
government," 1. 25. Other isles he commits to several govern- 
ment, but this he quarters. 

29. — quarters. The verb quarter may mean "to divide into 
four parts," or, in a free use, to divide into less or more parts. 
The point is in a sense immaterial, except that if Milton meant 
literally a division into four, we may suppose he referred, as 
Keightley surmised, to four centres of government, namely, 
those in Edinburgh and London, together with the Presidencies 
of the North and of Wales. — blue-haired. There are frequent 
references in the masques and elsewhere (for example, Drayton, 
Polyolbion, II, 45) to the sea gods as blue or green, epithets 
which go back to the cceruleus, blue, and glaucus, bluish or green- 
ish gray, of Latin authors. Milton's epithet, as Osgood notes, 
seems an adaptation of an epithet applied to Poseidon (Nep- 
tune) in the Iliad (XIII, 563, XIV, 390). 

30-36. — One of several direct references of a complimentary 
character to persons connected with or concerned in the giving 
of the play and incidental to its occasional character. The 
peer is the Earl of Bridgewater, in whose honor it was given. 
See the prefatory note. The sceptre was not newly entrusted," 
but the reference is quite justified by the fact that the play 
was in honor of his induction into office. 

31. — of mickle trust. Of great trustworthiness. 

32. — has. This form, originally Northern, is rare in Milton. 
He usually uses the Midland and Southern hath. — with tempered 
awe. With the reverential dread inspired by his office, tem- 
pered by his just and merciful discharge of its duties. 

33. — The Welsh. Milton's tribute, as Trent notes, was not 
merely an empty compliment on his part, as the epic he planned 
on Arthur and his History of Britain show. 

34.— Where. To which (the "tract" of 1. 30), whither. 

35. — to attend their father's state. To wait upon their 
father, in token of dutiful respect, on his assumption of his new 
dignities, and be present at the ceremonials signalizing his in- 
stallation. Attend still implied a service of duty in Milton's 
time. 

37. — perplexed. Interwoven, entangled; the original use. 

40. — Note the reference to the children's age. See the 
prefatory note. 



NOTES 103 

41. — sovran. A shortened form of soveram (whence, by in- 
fluence of reign, our spelUng sovereign). 

45. — hall or bower. A traditional phrase in poetic and other 
reference. The hall was the great living-room, and the bower 
the inner or private room of the lord or, perhaps, more specially 
the lady (as now in pseudo-archaic use), in a castle or manor. 
The bard or minstrel of early days might be called to sing in 
either, choosing appropriate songs or tales in each case. 

46-49. — The sailors (pirates, in fact) on the ship on which 
Bacchus, god of wine, was proceeding to Naxos, plotted to sell 
him into slavery. As they were on the point of seizing him, he 
caused the ship to be wreathed with ivy, turned their oars to 
serpents, and changed them to dolphins. 

47. — sweet poison of misused wine. Poison when mis- 
used. 

48. — After the transformation of the Tuscan mariners; a 
Latin construction. Compare post urhein conditam, after the 
building of the city. Such a phrase in English as " after their 
changed condition" for "after the change in their condition" is 
somewhat similar. Tuscan and Tyrrhene (in the next line) are 
practically equivalent. The sailors in the legend were Tyr- 
rhenians (see Osgood). The sea of that name lay between 
Italy, Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily, and, it will be remembered, 
modern Tuscany borders upon it. 

50. — This part of the story is, apparently, Milton's invention, 
"never yet . . . heard in tale or song." The island of Circe, 
according to Vergil and others, was in the Tyrrhenian Sea. 
Milton evidently placed it at Circeii. For the story of Circe see 
the Odyssey, X. 

bb. — The ivy was sacred to Bacchus. 

59. — Grown to full age, and exulting (compare our frolic- 
some) in the enjoyment of it. Of as connected with ripe 
means "as respects," as connected with frolic means "because 
of." 

60, 61. — To give the illusion of reality to the story. As 
Bacchus his father roved westward, Comus ranges the Celtic 
(French) and Iberian (Spanish) fields, and so comes to England. 
The same instinct leads the poet in 1. 61 to change from the 
past tense to the present, bringing the pagan deity, Comus, 
into proper relation with his purpose in point of time as in the 
previous line in point of place. 

61. — ominous. Of evil omen, hence forbidding. 



104 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

65. — orient. Lustrous like gems of the fine quality spe- 
cially characteristic of those of the Orient; hence, brilliant. — 
crystal glass. Glass vessels were in use from the Anglo-Saxon 
period and earlier, but their use was not general for drinking 
purposes, as "a glass" might denote a vessel of any kind, 
bottle, chemical implement, reliquary, etc. 

66. — drouth of Phoebus Thirst caused by the sun. Note 
the redundant syllable before the caesura, a license Milton did 
not permit himself in his later poems, except when partial 
elision was possible. 

67. — fond. Foolish; still in dialectal and literary use. 

71. — ounce. A kind of lynx. 

72. — An unpoetical line. It prepares, as editors note, for 
the appearance of the monsters in Comus's following, shortly to 
enter. The change wrought by Comus is less complete than that 
of Circe as respects bodily features, but more complete in its 
total transformation of the victim mentally and spiritually. 
In a dramatic production, bodily change in respect to coun- 
tenance only was expedient because of convenience, and 
because here complete animal form would have involved 
grotesqueness and would have suggested purely comic anti- 
masques. 

73. — perfect. Complete, utter. — misery. Pitiable state; the 
use follows the Latin. 

79. — adventurous. Full of risk; perilous. 

80. — glancing. Moving in a slanting direction. The line 
suggests a falling star. 

83. — spun out of Iris' woof. Iris was the goddess of the 
rainbow. Milton exercises the freedom of the true poet. To 
spin what is woven is, from the prosaic point of view, impos- 
sible. Two figures are here superimposed; the woof (note the 
suggestion of the bands of color) or fabric which Iris weaves, 
delicate and immaterial as it is, is such as can be spun to 
make the robes of spirits. But such complex images are beauti- 
ful in general suggestion (impressionistic, one might call them). 

84. — Another personal compliment — here to Henry Lawes, 
to whom Milton attributes powers like those of Orpheus. 

86. — smooth-dittied. Set to music "smoothly." Smooth is 
often used in the seventeenth century in this connection; it 
means "composed with unvarying skill and charming effect." 
The milkmaid sang the "smooth" song which Raleigh wrote to 
Izaak Walton. 



NOTES 105 

88.— nor of less faith. Not less faithful than skilful. 

89. — mountain watch. Over his sheep on the hills. 

90. — Most likely to be here and the one nearest at hand to 
render aid. 

92. — Stage direction, charming-rod. The customary wand of 
the enchanter. — rout. A disorderly company. — glistering. Glis- 
tening, shining, or sparkling. This portion of the masque 
constitutes an antimasque. See the prefatory note. 

93. — The star that bids the shepherd fold. Hesperus, the 
evening star. L. 93 echoes Shakespeare's " the unfolding star 
calls up the shepherd," Measure for Measure, IV, ii, 218. It 
holds its place high in the heavens (by hyperbole, the "top of 
heaven") just after sunset. 

95-97. — The gilded car of day is the chariot of the sun-god, 
Phoebus. Osgood (so Todd) notes that Milton may have de- 
rived his allusion to the cooling {allay, 1. 96, which had this 
special meaning) of the sun's glowing axle in the Atlantic from 
the reference in Statins or in Juvenal to the hissing of the 
chariot of Hyperion as it plunged into the western ocean at 
sunset. The poet speaks of the Atlantic stream with reference 
to the mythological conception of the ocean as a great stream 
that girdled the earth. The epithet steep has met with varied 
explanations — *'deep," "glittering," "faUing abruptly "(as sug- 
gested by the sun's descent), may serve as'examples. Two ex- 
planations are possible. One is that the poet refers to the 
appearance of the sea as sloping upward to the horizon. The 
other, and preferable, explanation is that while Milton refers 
to the chariot of the sun, his conception of the earth here in- 
volved is partly modern as well as classical, as shown by the 
succeeding lines; he therefore had in mind the downward slope 
of the ocean beyond the horizon, a steep corresponding to the 
" Indian steep " of 1. 139 on the eastern side. 

93-144. — The speech of Comus to his followers, in which he 
announces the coming of evening and summons them to join in 
their revels, leads up to and anticipates the spirit of the dance 
which follows. It is therefore in a lyric or songlike measure, 
not in the blank verse in which the direct action of the play, that 
which directly concerns the fortunes of the chief personages, is 
carried on. The difference is in the shorter line, varied move- 
ment, and use of rime. 

98-101. — This passage, left without comment by many edi- 
tors, is really one of great difficulty. One explanation, satis- 



106 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

factory at first sight, is that the sun, "slope" as sunk on its 
sloping course below the horizon, still shoots an upward beam 
toward the zenith, here called the pole, which is growing dusk as 
the sun disappears. But pole is not used for the zenith; 
the nearest use of it to this sense is for the sky or heavens. 
That Milton did not have in mind the last beams of the sun 
lingering in a sky growing dusky is apparent from the original 
reading in the MS., which was "northern pole." Dr. H. B. 
Evans informs me that no accurate astronomical explanation 
can be offered for the passage but that Milton may here refer to 
the Aurora Borealis, having heard of certain theories regard- 
ing it not printed till later in the century. 

101. — The usual reference hereto Psalms, xix, 4, 5, is not in 
point. Nothing is said there of the east, merely that the sun 
comes forth as a bridegroom. Milton has in mind the famihar 
classical conception. So also the "other goal" was possibly 
suggested by Homer (see Osgood, s. v. Apollo). 

105. — rosy twine. A twine or garland of roses. 

110. — grave saws. Maxims or moral sayings of serious 
nature uttered gravely in exhortation or rebuke. 

111. — of purer fire. With less of the earthly than mortals; 
the fire being taken, according to the classic conception, as 
the principle of life or more nearly resembling it. 

112. — starry choir. The reference is to the music of the 
spheres. See Nativity Ode, 1. 125, n. The spheres are 
"watchful," as being observant of their proper times and 
motions. 

115. — sounds and seas. The narrower and wider parts of the 
ocean. — finny drove. Compare Horace, Odes, I, ii, 7-9. 

116. — The tidal motion of the sounds and seas responsive to 
the moon's attraction is likened to the morris dance (by deriva- 
tion a Moorish dance), popular in mediaeval times and still 
traditional in parts of England, in which various figures are 
danced by a number of characters, the Hobby-horse, Queen of 
the May, Robin Hood, Maid Marian, and others. 

117. — tawny sands. Verity notes that Milton first used 
" yellow " and changed it because it would suggest a copying of 
Ariel's song in The Tempest. — shelves. That is, of rock. 

118. — pert. Trim, neat, trig (with suggestion of pettiness of 
size); an obsolete sense in a different line of development from 
its present use. — dapper. Trim, neat in appearance (retained 
in latter sense). 



NOTES 107. 

119. — brim. Its original sense, the shore of the sea or other 
body of water. 

121. — wakes. A wake is a night-watch or vigil. Milton's 
use includes the associations the word has with vigils held 
before church festivals, which, like the watches beside dead 
persons before burial, served as an occasion for festivity and 
merrymaking. 

125. — rites. Milton's spelling rights has suggested the query 
whether the meaning is not "our rightful festivities." The 
word intended, however, is rites. 

127. — dun. Properly dark brown; in extended (poetic) use, 
dark, dusky. 

129. — Ootytto (ko-tit'-to). A goddess, originally Thracian, 
whose worship was conducted in secret and by night. Milton 
may have drawn here, as Osgood points out, from a reference to 
Cotytto in Juvenal {Satiros, II, 91 /.). 

131. — The Stygian darkness is like a dragon's womb or belly 
that spits up the thick smoke and reek characteristic of the 
dragons of our Northern mythology. Milton may well have 
had the idea of dragons suggested to him in this connection by 
descriptions of the chariot of Night, or that which bore Medea, 
as drawn by dragons. 133. — one blot. An emphatic use of one 
in the sense "of one kind " (compare all one, one whole). Trent 
aptly cites "he is one mass of conceit." Note the idea of ob- 
literation in blot. 

134. — chair. Chariot. 

135. — Hecate. Hecate was originally a moon-goddess, as 
Osgood notes, but in a later conception goddess of witchcraft 
and sorcery, and, in general, of horrors suggested by darkness. 
She is associated with Cotytto, because of her frequent associa- 
tion with other deities of darkness in classical reference. The 
last vowel of Hecate is here elided — the usual pronunciation 
among the Elizabethans. 

139. — nice. Modest or shy, or affectedly so; not over- 
particular or precise, as usually explained in accordance with 
the modern sense. — the Indian steep. The slope in the far 
east corresponding in Milton's poetic conception of the sun's 
course to the steep of the Atlantic stream implied in 1. 97. 
Compare Spenser's phrase "eastern hill," similar in idea, but 
less imaginative in expression. 

147. — shrouds. This use is derived from the verb in its sense 
of "to cover, conceal." — brakes. Tangles of brushwood or 
briers; thickets. 



108 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

151. — trains. Lures. So used by Spenser and Shakespeare. 

154. — dazzling spells. The MS. reads, "powder'd spells," the 
use of a powder hurled into the air being also indicated by the 
"magic dust" of 1. 165. Masson suggested that the change to 
dazzling may imply use of a combustible powder; this is possible, 
or perhaps the use of powdered tinsel or the like is indicated. — 
spongy air. So called as taking up and holding the wizard's 
spells in suspension, 

155. — blear illusion. Illusion that blears or dims the eyes to 
what is real, rendering "false presentments" possible. 

157. — quaint habits. Strange or unusual garments. 

158. — suspicious flight. Flight caused by suspicion. 

161. — glozing courtesy. To gloze is to cause something 
wrong to appear as if right; also, an obsolete sense, to flatter. 
The former sense is intended, as the parallel word unplausible, 
1. 162, shows. 

163. — wind me. Compare the metaphor involved in this 
use with that in insinuate. 

164. — hug. A use now obsolete: to caress (a person) to 
gain his good-will or trust. Cf. Julius Caesar, I, ii, 74. 

167. — about his country gear. In seeing to the affairs or 
duties with which a countryman is occupied. Gear, now 
archaic, in its original and chief senses means clothes, arms, or 
equipment of any kind. 

168. — fairly. Quietly; an obsolete sense, in origin a develop- 
ment from use of the word in such phrases as "to part fairly," 
"to leave fairly," that is, to part or go away from a person on 
pleasant terms, hence peaceably, and hence gently or quietly. 

172. — ill-managed. An unfamiliar use to us in its suggestion. 
Milton used it as we would use "ill-regulated," in the sense of 
"not under proper control." 

173. — The flute or pipe when playing "gamesome" or 
"jocund" music. 

174. — loose unlettered hinds. Hinds or rustics untaught and 
therefore ignorant or heedless of proper behavior — here in the 
stronger sense, loose in morals, lax and vicious. 

175. — teeming. Bearing young abundantly. — granges. Gran- 
aries, barns. 

176.— Pan. See Nativity Ode, 1. 89, n. 

177. — thank the gods amiss. In a way not proper and truly 
acceptable. 

178. — swilled. To "swill" is to drink greedily and intemper- 
ately. Our phrase would be "drunken insolence." 



NOTES 109 

179. — wassailers. Drinkers, carousers. A wassail is a drink- 
ing-bout from the old pledge "waes hael," "may it be to your 
health or welfare," "here's to your health," 

180. — inform. Direct, guide. 

181. — mazes. Compare the similar use of labyrinth, 1. 278 
Maze is used in the plural to denote the many windings of a 
maze, as if one were involved in a succession of different 
mazes. 

188-190. — sad. Intent, serious, but with some coloring of 
the usual modern sense. — votarist. One bound by a vow, as to 
make a pilgrimage or perform a penance. — palmer. A pilgrim 
entitled to wear the palm as having made the pilgrimage to 
Jerusalem. The cha acteristic gray, hooded cloak of palmers 
is referred to in the previous line. 

The figure combines images somewhat incongruous to our 
modern habit of thought, but riot to that of Milton's age. 
Moreover, indeed, in Milton's time the chariot of Phoebus was 
not definitely " classical " in association as it is to us, so wholly 
naturalized had it become in poetic reference. Evening like a 
gray-hooded palmer rises (rose is literal, not figurative), following 
upon the flaming chariot of day as it departs. The figure is not 
one consistent figure, but two figurative images balanced in an- 
tithesis on the literal word rose. To which it may be added that 
"the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain" do not imply, as some 
editors have noted, that Milton supposed Phoebus 's chariot to 
have two pairs of wheels. The phrase is a Latinism for " im- 
mediately at the back of Phoebus' wain," that is, evening closely 
followed. the departure of day. 

193. — engaged. Put to use or service (now only in the broader 
sense, "provide occupation for," and chiefly passive, "to be 
engaged on"), but with coloring of the obsolete sense, "to ad- 
vance (an army, etc.) so far as to render withdrawal difficult. 

195-225. — This passage is omitted in the Bridgewater MS., 
which probably represents the acting version of the play. The 
portion omitted was inappropriate to a child playing the part. 

195. — stole. An obsolete variant of the past participle 
stolen. Compare the similar forms wove, prove, clove, spoke, etc., 
for woven, proven, etc. — thievish Night. Osgood notes that this 
is suggested by Ovid's furtivce nodes (Eleg., I, xl, 3). 

197. — The metaphor in this passage is of the elaborate or 
over-fanciful kind (often beautiful, but transcending good taste 
through extravagance or over-ingenuity) called a "conceit." 



110 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

203. — rife. Continuous and persistent. — perfect. Perfectly 
heard, unmistakable. 

204. — single darkness. Darkness alone, unmingled with any 
light; 80 used by poets before Milton, usually (as not here) of 
freedom from commixture with a baser element. This passage 
contains the earliest reference to a "dark lantern" (note the 
connection with "thievish Night"). 

205. — Editors follow each other in citing The Tempest, 
Purchases abstract of Marco Polo, Heywood's Hierarchy of 
Angels, Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess (to which Milton was 
elsewhere indebted), and other works, as possible sources for 
this passage (especially 11. 207-209). 

210. — well. By poetic license, for the sake of the metre, 
well follows instead of preceding the verb as it usually would. 

212. — siding. That sides with, or takes the part of, one. It 
is perhaps worth mention that Milton in his Commonplace Book 
(Camden Society, 1878) has the following note: "The cause of 
valour a good conscience, for an evil conscience, as an English 
author noteth well, will otherwise knaw at the roots of valour 
like a worm and undermine all resolutions. Ward. Militar. 
Sect. 7." — Conscience. Pronounce as three syllables. 

213-215. — The Lady is not apostrophizing the Christian 
virtues as guiding principles of life; she addresses the three that 
appear to her spiritual vision as those which will aid her in her 
peril — Faith upholding her, Hope to lead her on. Chastity as 
her guard from every harm. 

216. — ye. The nominative used as accusative: common in 
Elizabethan use, and at present in provincial use. Compare the 
oblique case thee for nominative thou in Quaker speech. 

217. — to whom. Pronounced to'oom, one of the elisions 
regularly admitted by Milton. 

219-220. — The theme of the play that no ill can come to true 
chastity here first receives direct expression. Note the belief 
expressed in 11. 217 /., which is a corollary of it, that all things 
ill are in "slavish" subjection to the Supreme Good and used 
only as officers of vengeance on things and beings that are evil — 
that evil can prey only upon evil. Milton drew his conception 
of his theme from Christian, not from classical poets and philoso- 
phers, where it also may be found, but in a different form. 
In the present passage, while embodying the Christian concep- 
tion, he has to avoid any direct reference at odds with his 
mythological setting. Hence God is referred to as the " Supreme 



NOTES 111 

Good," a term which may permissibly refer also to Jove, and the 
phrase "glistering guardian" is used which, while it directly 
suggests the guardian angels, and the glistering garments of the 
angels, in the Scriptures, also may refer, without a suggestion of 
incongruity, to the Attendant Spirit sent by Jove. 

221. — The question uttered half in hope, half in fear, with 
which the Lady interrupts herself, is repeated, when assurance 
oomes, in the form of an affirmation. — sable. Deep black; 
this use is derived from the *' tincture" in heraldry, originally 
named from the Russian fur, the best of which is black. 

225. — casts. This is not the anacoluthon or change of con- 
struction it first seems. Taking the sentence by itself one would 
expect an infinitive corresponding to turn. But it is only the 
first clause that is inverted for emphasis in response to the 
previous question. This clause is additional and is in the direct 
form, with the verb therefore in the indicative. — tufted. A 
more or less frequent poetic epithet in Milton's predecessors, as 
noted under L' Allegro, 1. 78. 

226. — The Lady was not able to shout the halloo, as customa- 
rily used, for example, in calling to dogs in hunting; knowing her 
inability to make her voice carry in that way, she therefore 
uses the best way she knows to make "such noise as can be 
heard farthest." 

It should be noted that this line is a "run-on line," that is, 
it ends with a word expressing relation only, namely but, which 
must necessarily be read in close connection with the clause it 
introduces. To make up for this the pause at the last logical 
break, just before but, is lengthened. The metrical unity of 
the lines is not really broken by this license; the ear detects it 
and in fact enjoys the variation from the usual "end-stopped" 
line. 

230-243. — Songs addressed to Echo are frequent in the 
masques. Scenes in which Echo is addressed appear also in a 
number of plays other than masques (for a famous example, see 
Webster's Vittoria Corrombona). In these, and often in the 
masques, Echo answers, the question being so contrived that 
the repetition of the last few words by Echo provides a suitable 
reply, frequently with a new and divertingly unexpected change 
of meaning. Milton does not use this device here apparently, 
as there is no stage direction to that effect and the words of the 
song would not provide answers. It is possible, however, that 
they may have been apparently echoed, for the Lady says in 



112 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

11. 275 /., that she was compelled to awake the "courteous 
Echo" to give her answer. 

Milton wrote few songs, but his great skill as a metrist 
insured him such success in this mode, despite its special diffi- 
culties, as to justify a comparison on equal terms with even the 
greatest Elizabethans. The differences are those that might 
be anticipated. Exquisite as is the imaginative conception of 
this song and beautiful as are its images and diction, it suggests 
studied art, as Shakespeare's and Ben Jonson's, for example, do 
not. Exquisite also, judged as a poem, as a song it has not the 
unity and directness of movement, the lightness of accent, the 
accurate regulation of balance of accents and quantities in the 
lyric pattern which characterize those masters of song-writing 
at their best. See, in regard to the song, the Introduction to 
Schelling's Elizabethan Lyrics and read in comparison with this 
song "Hark, hark, the lark." 

In reading songs it is particularly necessary to use the sus- 
tained voice, to read slowly at first .until the relation of the 
shorter lines to the longer is clearly perceived (one is apt to 
hurry these unduly), and to make sure that one observes the 
actual stresses of human speech. Line 233 is an example of 
this last point. It should not be read: 

And in the violdt embroidered vdle, 

but with an anapest in the second foot — 

And in the violet embroidered vdle. 

The same pattern is used in 11. 235, 236. Line 241 is a 
notable variation on the simple two-syllable movement. 

Swe^t Que^n of Pdrley, daughter of the sphere. 

The following line, apparently a pentameter, has really four 
stresses in reading 

S6 may'st thou bd translated to the skids 

Note the regular rhythm of the Alexandrine at the close (as of 
the opening pentameter), and how all its stresses but the first 
fall on syllables of marked length and openness. 

A word of comment is necessary in regard to the rimes of the 
Bong. The pronunciation of practically all words in Milton's 



NOTES 113 

time was sensibly different from that of to-day. Are, 1. 237, 
was pronounced, as now in rustic use, air, and made a true 
rime with pair, as also with where and sphere, 11. 240, 241. 
Have (in one standard pronunciation) and cave, 11. 238, 239, 
both had an a like that in part. This a was short in have and 
long in cave, but this difference would disappear with have 
under metrical and logical stress. 

230. — Echo was a nymph, daughter of the Earth and Air, 
whom Juno punished for betraying Jove's secrets, condemning 
her never to speak except in answer to questions. She fell in 
love with Narcissus (1. 237) and pined away till only her voice 
was left. See Ovid, Metamorphoses, III, 351 ff. 

231. — airy shell. Editors have suggested that Milton meant 
the immaterial body of Echo, as reduced merely to a voice; 
or the musical shell, the conch, used as a trumpet; or a sea- 
shell with its murmuring. A variant cell, noted by the poet for 
consideration on the edge of the MS., shows that the true 
meaning is the shell or concave of the air, the " sphere " of 1. 241. 
But there can be little doubt that Milton used the word to 
suggest also the sea-shell with its echo of the sea. 

232. — Meander. Our word " to meander " is derived from the 
name of this river of Phrygia, famed for its many windings. The 
airy habitation of Echo may be anywhere. — margent. Margin. 

233. — Probably, as Hales suggests, Milton drew here from a 
reference in Sophocles to the nightingales of Colonus, near 
Athens, still famous, as Hales shows, for its violets and nightin- 
gales. Milton here mentions the violet, the flower of Athens, 
the "violet-crowned" city, and in Paradise Regained, IV, 425, 
he definitely associates the nightingale with Athens. 

234. — lovelorn. Bereft of one loved, or pining because of 
love. Bell explained this as a reference to Aedon who, changed 
to a nightingale, lamented her son whom she had killed by 
mistake. The allusion usually accepted is that the nightingale 
is pining because of love, which is not in accordance with the 
actual story of Philomel. See note to II Penseroso, 1. 56. 

237. — Narcissus. The beautiful youth for love of whom 
Echo pined away, as he himself did later — becoming the flower 
that bears his name — out of love of his own image reflected in 
a stream. 

239. — flowery cave. Compare also the mossy coiLch of 1. 276. 
Classical references represent Echo as dwelling in woods and 
caves. See Osgood and compare Ovid, Metamorphoses, III, 393. 



114 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

241. — Parley. Interchange of speech, perhaps with partial 
implication of its formal use of a debate to which one is sum- 
moned, in allusion to Echo's being permitted to speak only 
when addressed. — sphere. Of the air, but also anticipatory 
of the graceful fancy following that, if she will but tell, it may be 
given her to add grace to the music of the spheres. 

243. — Comus comes from his hiding-place into the view of the 
audience, having disguised himself as a "harmless villager" or 
shepherd. His speech is an "aside" until he advances and 
addresses the Lady in 1. 265. 

247. — the vocal air. The air as giving voice to the song. 
This is the usual and to us the natural sense owing to our famil- 
iarity with such phrases as "the air was vocal with melody," 
"birds rendered the air vocal." It is possible, however, that 
Milton uses air in its obsolete sense of "breath," and that 
"vocal air" means literally the breath giving voice to the 
song. The something holy lodges in that breast and there 
moves the vocal air to testify his hidden residence. 

249. — It is interesting to note how the figure of the "wings of 
silence" is echoed by the beautiful figure in 1. 251 of the "raven 
down of darkness." The down is smoothed till it shines with 
smoothness — hence, in vivid metaphor, smiles. 

251. — fall. A falling sequence of notes in music, a cadence. 
253.— the Sirens three. The Sirens (see the Odyssey, XII, 
39 Jf., 166 jf.) were beings in the form of women who, seated 
near the edge of the sea (in a meadow, in the Odyssey; on rocks 
by the water's edge, in Vergil and elsewhere), beguiled sea- 
farers to their destruction by their beauty and the sweetness of 
their singing. In the classics they are in no way associated, 
as here, with Circe. It is clear (see note on 11. 257 ff.) that the 
island of Circe was for Milton at Circeii in geographical prox- 
imity to the Sirens, whose abiding-place lay between it and 
Scylla and Charybdis. 

Two of the Sirens are mentioned in 11. 879, 880: Parthenope, 
said to have been buried in Naples, the "dear tomb," of 1. 879, 
and Ligea, to whom Milton ascribes "soft alluring locks "on 
the authority probably of Vergil, Georgics, IV, 337. Milton 
also pictures her as combing her locks, like, as Masson pointed 
out, a Teutonic mermaid (Lorelei) rather than a classic 
Siren. 

254. — Naiades. Nymphs of springs and streams. The Odys- 
sey (X, 350), as Osgood points out, speaks of Circe's hand- 



NOTES 115 

maids as " born of the wells, and of the woods, and of the holy 
rivers." The phrase " flowery-kirtled " is probably a borrowing 
of Ovid's pictis incinctce vestibus, Fasti, V, 217, used of the 
Hours. Various commentators upon Ovid (Osgood) speak of 
the Hours as wearing garments made of flowers. 

255. — This line, as Osgood notes, was probably suggested by 
Ovid (Metamorphoses, XIV, 267 /.) in his account of Circe. 

257. — elysium. Elysium, in classical mythology, was a place 
where good men dwell eternally, by special election of the gods, 
without tasting death. From classic references to the fields of 
asphodel, "the idea of Elysium is closely associated in the 
mind of Milton with that of flowers," of. L' Allegro, 145-147, 
Paradise Lost, III, 358 /., Comus, 992-998, and the present 
passage (Osgood). The poet does not use the word figuratively, 
as the phrase "lap it in elysium" proves, and it should not here 
be printed, as it is in modernized editions, with a capital. It 
had already, long before Milton's time, lost its specific sense, 
and come to be used to mean a state of blissful happiness. 

— Scylla. Scylla was a rock in the Straits of Messina, 
and Charybdis (1. 259) the whirlpool opposite. These have 
given rise to various stories. Circe, jealous because of the love 
the sea-god Glaucus bore for the nymph Scylla, poisoned the 
spring where she bathed, which caused her to change into a suc- 
cession of monstrous forms. She threw herself into the sea and 
became {Mneid, III, 551-560) a monster in a cave surrounded 
by " barking waves " {latrantihus undis) . Milton's version (see 
Osgood) is from Ovid, Metamorphoses, XIV, 40-74, as proved 
by Paradise Lost, II, 660), namely, that Scylla was trans- 
formed by Circe while bathing in the Sicilian Straits, in such 
wise that she was surrounded by barking dogs which she could 
not flee from, as they were a part of her, and so in the extremity 
of her grief was changed to a rock. 

263. — waking bliss. Bliss actually known in "sober cer- 
tainty" while awake, though such as one would think would 
come only in the unreality of dreams. 

265. — foreign. From without this country-side. 

267. — unless. Unless (thou art). — rural shrine. Every 
country-side among the ancients might have its special tutelar 
deity worshipped by the country folk together with the greater 
gods and invoked with them for aid and protection. Comus 
pretends to see such a goddess in the Lady, who by the blest 
influence of her song is charming away evil influences. The 



116 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

indirect personal compliment to Lady Alice and her parents 
implied in the whole speech of Comus (remembering that the 
Lady is acting half in her own character) is apparent. 

268. — Sylvan. Sylvanus was properly a god of the woods, 
but, according to Vergil (see Osgood), of the fields also. Com- 
pare II Penseroso, 134; Paradise Lost, IV, 707. 

269. — fog. The dampness and cold of fog are "unkindly,' 
as thought to produce mildew and blight. Compare 1. 433. 

271. — gentle shepherd. This use of gentle as a complimentary 
term of address (compare "gentle sir, gentle lady," etc., and the 
"gentle taper" of 1. 337), if not archaic and poetic only in 
Milton's time, became so shortly afterward. It survives only 
in "gentle reader" in other than archaic use. Its use with 
shepherd, owing to Milton chiefly, became a poetic idiom. — 
ill is lost. In ill wise is lost or wasted; a Latinism, male 
perditur. 

273. — boast of skill. Desire to show off my skill in singing. 
— extreme shift. For the accentuation, see the note on 1. 4. 
The use of shift is a pregnant poetic use, " difficulty and danger 
leading to the use of any shift or resource that may bring 
help." 

278-290. — A notable example of stichomythia, or dialogue in 
alternate lines, as used in Greek tragedy, in Seneca, and in 
English tragedies under classic influence. 

278. — dim darkness. Dusky or shadowy darkness; see the 
note on 1. 5. — leavy. This is the form the word would naturally 
assume, but the influence of the primitive leaf is constantly 
felt, rendering leafy the more common form. Tennyson seemed 
to prefer leavy. — labyrinth. The same figure is used in 1. 
181. 

279. — near-ushering. The guides went before (implied in 
ushering), but near at hand. The word may be used also with 
implication of ceremonious or deferential guidance (its usual 
sense), in compliment to the Lady. 

282. — As Verity notes, a somewhat different reason is given 
in 11. 185 /. 

283. — The construction is elliptic on a Latin model, "and left 
your side (and you so fair) unguarded. " The body of the phrase 
perhaps follows the Latin tegere latus alicui, to walk close by the 
side of, as Verity suggests. 

285.— prevented. Perhaps in the obsolete sense " anticipate," 
but quite as probably in its present familiar sense. 



NOTES 117 

286. — hit. This use of hit, "to reach or strike something 
aimed at," is confined practically to physical relations to-day, 
except in such phrases as "to hit the point," " he hit it exactly." 
The meaning is not to " hit upon," or guess. 

287. — " Is their loss a matter of concern or importance aside 
from the present need?" The real purpose of Comus, to ascer- 
tain the character of the Lady's companions, is satisfied by her 
answer. 

291. — what time. At such time as; at the time when. — la- 
bored. That has been worked hard, hence, wearied with labor; 
compare swinked, 1. 293. 

292. — The idea of an ox in traces, loosed from the plough, is 
unfamiliar to Americans. 

293. — swinked. The obsolete verb swink, from A. S. 
swincan, implies hard toil. It was obsolete in Milton's time, 
except perhaps dialectally. It survives only in a variant form 
and in the phrase "a swingeing blow," one of great force. 

294. — mantling. Forming a mantle or covering; hence, of 
a vine, spreading over and covering what it hangs or rests on. 

295. — yon small hill. Comus points, as Verity suggests, to 
some part of the scenery in the background. Or possibly, as 
we would say, "off the wings." 

297. — port. The way a person carries himself, bearing, hence 
his aspect as due to this; frequent in Elizabethan use. 

298. — faery. A variant of fairy and used in the same general 
range of senses, namely, the realm of the fairies, fairies collec- 
tively, a single fairy. — vision. The ending -ion, more rarely 
-ean, may form two syllables — its earlier pronunciation — and, 
by virtue of the secondary accent on -on when so pronounced, 
serve as a full foot (so, at the end of the line, in 11. 365, 377, 
413, 457, 467, 641, 685, 749, c/. also Conscience, 1. 212— and 
within the line in 1. 603). 

299. — creatures of the element. The spirits of the air (see 
the note on II Penseroso, 93), the context indicating that air is 
the element meant. Water and fire are also thus alluded to, 
less often earth; water even to-day, and both water and air in 
the trite phrase "the war of the elements." 

301. — plighted. Plaited or folded, disposed in folds. 

308. — starlight. Normally this word is stressed on the first 
syllable. The word really, however, here receives two stresses, 
and the line is an example of Milton's occasional use of two 
stresses in conjunction following upon two normally unaccented 



118 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

syllables. In reading a light stress should be put upon of and 
two nearly equal stresses upon the syllables of starlight. 

309. — land-pilot's art. This phrase is suggested to the Lady 
by the form of the direction Comus gives in 1. 306. 

311. — alley. A walk or path in a garden or wood; the earli- 
est recorded sense in English and the current sense in German. 

312. — dingle. In dialectal use, a deep valley between hills; 
in literary use, perhaps owing to Milton (see N. E. D.), a deep 
dell (valley or hollow), wooded or overshadowed by trees. 

313. — bosky bourne. " Bushy " or wooded brook. Bourne is 
more familiar in its Northern (Scottish) form hum. 

314. — ancient. Known of old. 

315. — attendance. Those who afford attendance, attendants; 
an obsolete use. 

316. — shroud. Find cover, hide or shelter; compare the 
use of the noun in 1. 147, and note. 

317. — low-roosted lark. The lark does not roost, but makes 
her nest on the ground. This nest, of dry grasses, forming her 
pallet or bed (1. 318) is spoken of as "thatch'd" because it is 
like thatch and suggests that it was made as one makes thatch 
for a roof. The reader will not need to be reminded of the part 
which the skylark with her thrilling flight and song has played 
in English poetry from Chaucer to Shelley, and in familiar 
reference ("to be up with the lark," "to sing like a lark"). 

319, 320. — to a low, But loyal cottage. To a cottage lowly 
and humble (as cottages are), but (with inmates) loyal to 
what is right and worthy of trust. 

323-326. — Comparisons of this character are frequent in 
lyric and other verse throughout the seventeenth century and 
earlier. So common are they that we need not suppose a 
special personal animus in the passage presaging the republican 
Milton of a later day, as the editors suggest. 

325. — where it first was named. Courtesy meant originally 
the manners and address appropriate to a court, and is derived 
from court. Milton here runs counter to Spenser, Faerie 
Queene, VI, i, 1. 

327. — Less warranted than this. Offering less warrant of 
safety. 

, 329. — Eye me. Keep watch over me, regard me. — square. 
Shape, adjust. 

330. — To my proportioned strength. To my strength as it is 
proportioned; so as to be proportionate to my strength. 



NOTES 119 

331-489. — This scene of 159 lines, more than a tenth of the 
whole, is of undue length when considered in relation to the 
service it renders in advancing the action of the play. Editors 
comment upon this fact and the lack of characterization in the 
two brothers as exemplifying Milton's lack of dramatic ability. 
He was probably deficient in this respect. However, Milton 
here gives formal and elaborate expression to the theme of the 
play already enunciated in brief by the Lady. Such an ex- 
pression of it was needed in the play at this point. The minds 
of the audience are prepared for it and the repetition enforces it, 
especially in view of the fact that the Lady has just put herself 
in the power of Comus. Moreover, the play is a masque and an 
elaborate statement of its theme is justified; to its explicit 
presentation, action in the ordinary sense is subordinate. A 
similar criticism might just as well apply to many of Jonson's 
masques. In respect to the characterization of the brothers, 
it need only be added that they are playing in their own 
characters. The appeal to the spectators and especially to 
their parents resides in the fact that they become the 
mouthpieces of such lofty morality and beautiful poetry, as 
if these were, as might justly be conceived to be, natural to 
them. 

331. — Unmuffle. Muffle meant originally " to wrap warmly " 
(it is connected with muff), hence, "to wrap closely for conceal- 
ment." Milton's use of it in reference to stars and the moon 
has been imitated by several poets. 

332. — wontest. Art wont or accustomed. 

333. — amber cloud. Of the color of amber, yellowish- 
brown; referring to the color often seen when the moon shines 
through a cloud. 

334. — disinherit Chaos. Inherit in a secondary use, now 
obsolete, came to mean "to take possession, or to hold, as one's 
right." It appears in early Biblical use, in Shakespeare, and in 
Milton (see Samson Agonistes, 1012, and N. E. D.). Verity's 
gloss "dispossess" is an apt equivalent. Chaos in the classical 
conception, like the formless void of Hebrew belief, was the 
original abyss of warring elements before the ordered universe 
came into being, or, further, the region of this character re- 
maining above hell. This conception is sometimes personified. 

336. — influence. Milton uses this word in its ordinary sense, 
but it was suggested to him (as it would not be to us) by its 
special astrological use with reference to the supposed power of 



120 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

the heavenly bodies upon the earth and the fortunes of men. 
Note how its etymological meaning suggested to Milton the 
phrase "dammed up." 

337. — some gentle taper. A direct address, as shown by 
"thy" and "thou" below. For gentle, see 1. 271, n. 

338.— Though. Though but (a rush-candle). The Elder 
Brother calls up a picture of the rudest and simplest conditions 
of life — a cotter's hut of clay, the window unglazed and filled 
with a grating of woven boughs (the door might possibly be a 
bundle of thorn or other brush), and the candle one made by 
dipping a rush for wick. 

340. — rule. Referring to the sharpness and straightness of a 
beam of light through a window, as if ruled. Verity notes that 
the alliteration suggests the line of light; cf. Matthew Arnold's 
The Scholar- Gipsy y "The line of festal light in Christ-Church 
Hall." 

341, 342. — The "star of Arcady" is an example of the some- 
what recondite form in which Milton sometimes delights to 
couch his mythical allusions. Calisto, daughter of Lycaon, 
king of Arcadia (whence "Arcady"), having taken refuge 
among the nymphs of Diana, was loved by Jupiter and there- 
fore changed, by Diana, Juno, or Jupiter himself, according to 
various versions of the story, into a bear and placed with her 
son Areas among the stars, where they form the constellations 
of the Great and the Lesser Bear. The " star of Arcady," there- 
fore stands for the constellation of the Great Bear. The " Cyno- 
sure (Gr. for "dog's tail") of the next line was another name 
for the Lesser Bear, because of its fancied resemblance to a dog's 
tail, and hence for the Pole Star at the tip of the tail (for a 
further development see the note on L' Allegro, 77). The Great 
Bear, according to the ancients, was used by Greek sailors in 
their navigation, the Cynosure by the Phoenicians (whence 
Milton's "Tyrian"). The sense of the passage is, therefore, 
" Thou shalt be our guiding-star in the darkness, as the Great 
Bear was to the Greeks, the Cynosure to the Tyrians." 

344. — wattled cotes. Sheds or shelters made of hurdles., 

345. — pastoral reed with oaten stops. The shepherd's pipe, 
familiar in classic and later reference, properly made then and 
now of a reed or other woody hollow stem with the mouth end 
stopped as in our whistles, and with holes (stops) for the fingers. 
Jerram, in commenting upon Lycidas, 33, notes that there is no 
authority for the oaten pipe frequently referred to in English 



NOTES ni 

verse. This is probably due to Vergil's tenui avena (Eclogue, I, 
2), though avena may mean any straw or stalk. Milton uses 
reed, it will be noticed, simply as meaning pipe, not a reed pipe. 
The stops or openings are cut in an "oaten" straw. 

346. — lodge. The hunting lodge, or keeper's house, which 
might be expected in the forest. 

349. — innumerous. Innumerable. 

355. — Leans. Not necessarily intransitive, with head as its 
subject, as some editors note. The she of 1. 351 is felt as a 
subject all the way through, despite 1. 353, as shown by its 
omission in 1. 356. 

356. — What if. What if [she should be], etc. — amazement. 
Overpowering terror, panic; one of several obsolete senses 
(stupefaction, frenzy, distraction, or bewilderment). 

358. — heat. Desire or passion. Newton paraphrased the 
line aptly, "the hunger of savage beasts or the lust of men as 
savage as they." 

359. — over-exquisite. Overanxiously careful in searching 
out; a special use of the obsolete sense "scrupulous in detail, 
accurate, precise." 

360. — cast. Forecast, conjecture; a sense now obsolete. 
Milton's use is a little unusual. The usual phrases are "to 
cast peril, danger, peril, the worst." Milton uses the word of 
"evils," but interpolates "fashion." 

361-364. — grant they be so. That they are evils (be is indic- 
ative; cf. 1. 12, n.). A correlative phrase follows in 1. 364, 
"Or if they be but false alarms of fear" (here be is subjunctive 
and equivalent to "should prove to be"). 

Warburton, in the eighteenth century, commented, "This 
line obscures the thought, and loads the expression; it had 
been better out." The criticism is not just, for the line con- 
tains an idea essential to the sense, "while they rest unknown." 
But Warburton probably felt what is true of this line in particu- 
lar, as in some measure of the whole passage it introduces 
(11. 361-365), namely, that the level of the poetry here sinks 
sensibly nearer to that of prose; cf. 11. 407-413. Perhaps it 
was Milton's design to make clear beyond question by set 
argument, the Elder Brother's studious and very proper care in 
the performance of his duty as guide and counsellor of his 
younger brother, and his poise and balance of mind under the 
responsibility involved in the loss of his sister. That he speaks 
with authority as the Elder Brother is unmistakable; note that 



122 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

while the Second Brother speaks of "our" sister (11. 350, 407) in 
talking with his brother (using " my " only once in a prayer to 
Heaven for her), his brother speaks of " my " sister (11. 366, 415). 
But throughout the Elder Brother's speeches (as definitely in 
the passage 375-380, which is unquestionably autobiographical, 
as Pattison suggested) there is much that speaks directly from 
the least lovely side of Milton's character, noble as it was, 
namely, the tone of arrogance and conscious superiority he 
betrays when assuming the office of moralist. 

The idea in the passage that it is foolish to anticipate "un- 
certain evils" is one familiar in proverbial warnings against 
"running to meet trouble half-way" (referred to in 1. 363), 
"crossing a bridge before one comes to it," and the like. 

362. — What need a man. ' Why does a man need to . . .'etc. 
— date of grief. Appointed time of unhappiness; probably 
rather in the sense of period or season (frequent in poetry of the 
period and earlier) than appointed time of beginning. 

366. — so to seek. So wanting in what is sought or desired. 

367. — unprincipled. Unschooled in the teachings of virtue 
and the ensuing peace of soul, preventing fear, which should 
form basic principles of character. 

368. — bosoms. Holds cherished in the bosom. 

369. — single want. Want alone, mere want. — noise. See 
Nativity Ode, 97, n. 

370. — The absolute participial clause needs no subject, for 
the subject of the sentence sister is clearly held in mind through- 
out it. 

371. — constant. Standing firm, steadfast, unchanging; the 
primitive etymological meaning. 

372. — plight. State or condition; here, as often, implying 
an unfortunate or evil state through mischance. 

373-375. — Milton here echoes the Faerie Queene, I, i, 12, 
"Virtue gives herself light through darkness far to wade." 

375. — flat sea. The editors note Lycidas, 98, "the level 
sea," as a close parallel. A variation of the same idea ap- 
pears in 1. 23 above, "The unadorned bosom of the deep." 
Milton's use of fat here perhaps expresses the emphasis of 
the speaker, picturing sun and moon sunk and the sea level 
over them. 

375-380. — This passage is very probably autobiographical, as 
Pattison suggested, referring to the years Milton spent at 
Horton. 



NOTES 123 

376. — seeks to. Resorts to; c/. in the 1611 Si6Ze, Deuteron- 
omy, xii, 5, and elsewhere. 

377-380. — This would seem mixed metaphor, but, as else- 
where, Milton includes a figure within a figure. Having realized 
Wisdom in her retirement with Contemplation, he starts a new 
figure within the figurative world he has created as if it were 
itself a physical world. 

378. — plumes. Preens; dresses, arranges. Warton urged 
the emendation prunes (equivalent to preens) as a specific 
term used in hawking and of birds generally, but Milton un- 
questionably wrote plumes. 

379. — various bustle of resort. The press of varied activities 
in places where many resort. 

380. — all to-ruffled. The editions which Milton supervised 
print all to ruffled. Early editors, unfamiliar with the prefix 
involved, emended to to too. The to is A. S. to-, M. E. to-, an 
intensive with the meaning asunder, cognate with German zer- 
and similar in meaning and use. All was often prefixed, as here, 
as an additional intensive, just as in our phrase "all to pieces." 

381-385. — Milton used this theme again, in a more elaborate 
and dramatic form, in Samson Agonistes, 151-163, with 
reference to Samson blinded and in bondage. The greater 
effectiveness of its use there is worth noting. 

386. — affects. To show a preference for by habitual use. 

387. — pensive. Permitting or conducive to thought. — 
desert cell. The thoughts of the Second Brother are led at once 
to the hermits of the earlier period of the Church who, enlarging 
upon Biblical example, betook themselves, to secure a life of 
uninterrupted meditation and devotion, to the "desert" — the 
desert actually where it was possible in the Orient (as in Egypt), 
or in such wild and solitary places, forests, or mountains, as 
offered themselves. . The hermit is a familiar figure in mediaeval 
romances and the literature which draws from it. The Greek 
original means "one who dwells in the desert." 

388. — Gray perhaps patterns on Milton here, as Verity sug- 
gests, though with a different intention in meaning, in the 
Elegy in a Country Churchyard, 73, "Far from the madding 
crowd's ignoble strife." 

389. — Editors note that Milton has in mind the sanctity 
which invested the Roman senate. Verity adds a reference to 
Cromwell's disregard of the privilege of Parliament, April 20, 
1653. 



lU MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

390. — weeds. Clothing (see note on U Allegro, 120) — here, 
the hermit's frock and other garments. Milton used "hairy- 
gown" in II Penseroso, 169. In this line for weeds he first 
wrote beads, and the following line read "his books, his hairy- 
gown, or maple dish," as Sampson notes from his examination 
of the Cambridge MS. 

391. — The few possessions permitted by his vow of poverty — 
books of devotion, a string of beads or rosary for keeping ac- 
count of his prayers, and a wooden bowl. The bowl is of maple 
here, but, as Masson notes, the hermit or sage in Milton's sixth 
Elegy has one of beech. 

393. — Hesperian tree. The tree with golden boughs and 
leaves bearing the golden apples, the marriage gift of Juno, 
guarded by a dragon and in the charge of the Hesperides, 
maidens with exquisite powers of song, whom Milton makes 
the daughters of Hesperus (1. 982). The gardens of the Hes- 
perides (so called by the ancients, but called "Hesperian 
gardens" by Milton) were at the confines of the earth in 
the west. Milton identifies them with Elysium and the Islands 
of the Blest {Paradise Lost, III, 568, IV, 250). Osgood 
(whom see in general) notes that but little is said in the classics 
of the beauty of the Hesperides or of their gardens. The 
gardens particularly, however, became a stock allusion in mod- 
ern literature and a set theme (introduced, for example, into 
several masques) for passages of glowing description, as below, 
11. 981 ff. Another description was cut out of the opening speech 
of the Attendant Spirit after 1. 4. See further at note on 1. 981. 

395. — with unenchanted eye. With eyes whose close watch 
may not be caused to relax through enchantment. 

398. — unsunned. Kept hidden from the light. Perhaps 
suggested by the Faerie Queene, II, viii, 4 /. 

401. — Danger will close his eyes to what Opportunity offers. 
The suggestion has been made that the use of Desire in place 
of Danger would have made the passage simpler and clearer, 
but the personification of Danger as a maleficent being, watch- 
ful for a chance to put a person in risk of harm, is far more 
effective. 

404. — it recks me not. The impersonal for the direct use " I 
reck not of," that is, "am not concerned regarding." Cf. 
Lycidas, 122. This use is not common, but is a natural develop- 
ment like the similar use "it concerns me not," "it does not 
matter to me." 



NOTES 125 

405. — dog. Follow closely and stealthily for a purpose. 
Note how this line echoes the idea in 1. 401. 

406. — ill-greeting. Addressing or approaching in ill or evil 
wise. 

407. — unowned. Unaccompanied by persons having her in 
charge, hence unprotected. 

408. — Infer. Make inference, argue. 

411. — arbitrate the event. Weigh or pass judgment (as 
arbiter between hope and fear) upon the possible outcome. 

413. — squint suspicion. Squint as eyeing things askance in 
doubt and distrust. 

418-431. — The theme of the masque, already referred to in 
more general terms in another relation by the Lady (11. 210-212) 
to the effect that virtue insures fortitude (to use the accepted 
term of the moralists), as also by the Elder Brother (11. 366-372), 
here receives more explicit and forcible expression. Chastity 
is itself a sure defence (1. 420). In 11. 432-475, the Elder 
Brother adduces proof for his faith. The entire passage, as 
Masson says, "is not only a concentrated expression of the 
moral of the whole masque, but also an exposition of what was 
a cardinal idea with Milton through his whole life, and perhaps 
the most central idea of his personal philosophy in early man- 
hood." 

It is because of the familiarity of the fact of Milton's intimate 
indebtedness to Spenser that editors have not been at pains to 
refer specifically to Una and the Lion and her immunity in 
general from the powers of evil that surround her. The passage 
in the Faithful Shepherdess, cited in illustration of 11. 432-437, in 
part closely suggests the present passage. 

421. — complete steel. For the stress in complete, see the 
note on 1. 11. The phrase echoes Hamlet, I, iv, 52, as editors 
in general have noted; possibly also, as Warton suggested, 
Phineas Fletcher's Parthenia (the name means "virgin one") in 
the Purple Island, X, 27 Jf., who is described as " all in steel and 
gilded arms." 

422. — The nymphs in classical mythology were lesser deities 
of the woods, mountains, springs, rivers, or of particular 
localities. They are a famihar poetic convention in Enghsh and 
other literatures, and play a special and important part in the 
pastoral. The nymphs here referred to are followers of Diana 
(see 1. 441). Like her they are virgin, and like her carry bow 
and quiver. 



126 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

423. — trace. Pass through or over, traverse; a common 
Elizabethan use. — unharbored. Offering no harbor or shelter. 

424. — Infamous. Of evil repute; a Latinism. Editors cite 
Phineas Fletcher, Piscatorie Eclogues, I, 14, "Th' infamous 
woods and downs," and Horace, Odes, I, iii, 20, "infames 
scopulos." The accentuation here used is recorded as late as 
the eighteenth century, but Milton also uses our present ac- 
centuation. 

426. — mountaineer. One having the savage traits of a dweller 
in the mountains. Verity cites Cymbeline, IV, ii, 120, "call'd 
me traitor, mountaineer." 

428. — very. True, hence absolute, utter. 

429. — grots. Grot, now only poetical, is from the French 
word, as grotto from the Italian. — shagged. Made shaggy; 
common in poetry of the first half of the seventeenth century. — 
horrid shades. Properly "bristhng" or "shaggy" shades 
("shades" by metonymy for "woods"), .a Latinism not infre- 
quently used from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, 
but here used also with implication of its ordinary meaning. 

430. — unblenched. Unswerving, that will not swerve or flinch 
through fear. 

432-437. — Milton here cites proof, possibly true, from popu- 
lar belief. At 1. 438 he passes to evidence adduced from the 
ancient philosophers, "the old schools of Greece," 1. 439. 
This passage seems unquestionably to have been suggested by 
Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess, as pointed out by Newton. 

434. — Blue. Livid, slate-color; from Old Norse bla (whence 
bio, bice, in dialectal use), changed by analogy to similarity with 
blue, the color of the sky, which is of different derivation. — 
meagre. Thin, lean. The graphic quality of these two epithets 
is notable. — stubborn unlaid ghost. One that walks and will 
not rest, not having been "laid" or put to rest by the rite of 
exorcism, the office of the church prescribed for that purpose. 

435. — Ghosts were believed to walk from curfew (the legal 
hour for covering fires according to the old usage, that is, eight 
or nine o'clock) till cock-crow. The reason is one which belongs 
to "magic"; hence Milton speaks of the "magic chains" 
which bind them at other times (c/. "each fettered ghost " in 
Nativity Ode, 234). 

436. — swart faery. Black elf or gnome. Gobhns and 
spirits who live in the earth (c/. 11 Penseroso, 93 /., n.), or, more 
particularly, in mines, play an important part in folk-lore. 



NOTES 127 

439. — The speaker now appeals to the schools of the philos- 
ophers. 

441. — Dian. The Anglicized form of Diana, retained in 
poetic and general literary use. Diana was the goddess of the 
moon (hence she is here called "silver-shafted," perhaps with 
double reference to the shafts in her quiver) and also of the 
chase. A virgin goddess, she was fabled to spend her time in 
hunting with her nymphs, virgin like her, and contemning love 
(setting at naught the "frivolous bolt of Cupid," 11. 444 /.). 
Cf. 11. 422 if., n., and 1. 340, n. 

443. — blinded. Brindled, streaked, and spotted; probably 
from brended, of a burnt color, whence also branded. 

444. — pard. Panthdr, leopard. 

445. — frivolous. Without importance or seriousness; of 
trifling nature. The word has become more limited in applica- 
tion and less serious in meaning than in Milton's time. — bolt of 
Cupid. The arrow of the god of love; in a specific sense, a bolt 
was the arrow used in a cross-bow. 

447-449. — Of the three Gorgons, Medusa alone was mortal. 
Having committed sacrilege in the temple of Minerva, her 
hair was changed to serpents, which gave her an aspect so ter- 
rible that all who beheld her were turned to stone. Perseus 
filew her, guiding his blows by her reflection in his shield 
(Benvenuto Cellini's famous statue will be remembered), and 
her head was fixed on the shield of Minerva. Osgood notes that 
Milton follows Ovid, Metamorphoses, IV, 771 ff. 

449. — freezed. This weak preterite here used by Milton first 
appeared in the Middle English period. — congealed. For the 
stress, see 1. 4, n. 

451. — dashed. Abashed, overpowered. 

455. — liveried angels lackey her. Angels in their heavenly 
livery attend her as lackeys or servants. The term lackey 
makes it clear that Milton used livery in the sense of the dis- 
tinctive dress of servants, not merely in the sense, still current 
in his time, of distinctive dress. 

458. — gross. Lacking delicacy in hearing, dull to what is 
fine. 

459. — oft. Frequent. 

460. — Milton changed begins to begin in the MS., that is, from 
the indicative to the subjunctive, but did not similarly change 
turns, 1. 462. Masson may be right in thinking this intentional 
and designed to imply certain accomplishment of the changOv 



128 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

463-475. — This passage, as Newton first pointed out, is 
based on Plato, Phcedo, 81. The passage, in Jowett's transla- 
tion (third edition, II, 224), is as follows: 

"But the soul which has been polluted, and is impure at the 
time of her departure, and is the companion and servant of the 
body always, and is in love with and fascinated by the body 
and by the desires and pleasures of the body, until she is led 
to beheve that the truth only exists in a bodily form, which a 
man may touch and see and taste, and use for the purpose of 
his lusts, — the soul, I mean, accustomed to hate and fear and 
avoid the intellectual principle, which to the bodily eye is 
dark and invisible, and can be attained only by philosophy — 
do you suppose that such a soul will depart pure and unalloyed? 

Impossible, he replied. 

She is held fast by the corporeal, which the continual associa- 
tion and constant care of the body have wrought into her 
nature. 

Very true. 

And this corporeal element, my friend, is heavy and 
weighty and earthy, and is that element of sight by which a 
soul is depressed and dragged down again into the visible 
world, because she is afraid of the invisible and of the world 
below — prowling about tombs and sepulchres, near which, as 
they tell us, are seen certain ghostly apparitions of souls which 
have not departed pure, but are cloyed with sight and therefore 
visible." 

The conception of the body's being changed to the soul's 
essence in 11. 459-463, through "converse with heavenly hab- 
itants," Milton used later in Paradise Lost, V, 493. 

465. — lavish. Unrestrained, licentious; an obsolete use. 

468. — Imbodies and imbrutes. Grows to be of a material, not 
spiritual, nature and becomes brutish. 

473. — Each shadow is thought of as sitting by its former 
body — hence the singular in place of the plural. 

474. — sensualty. In former use, interchange of the endings 
-ty and -ity is common. 

476. — This line is an acknowledgment to Plato, from whom 
the substance of the previous passage is taken. 

478.^Editors cite Love's Labour's Lost, IV, iii, 342 /., "as 
sweet and musical as bright Apollo's lute," and a similar com- 
parison in Milton's Tractate of Education, in which he uses the 
harp of Orpheus. 



NOTES 129 

479. — nectared. Made delicious with or as with nectar, the 
drink of the gods. 

480. — crude surfeit. Excess attended by or producing indi- 
gestion; a rare Latinism, now obsolete. 

483. — night-foundered. Sunk or lost in the night like a ship 
in the sea. Cf. Paradise Lost, I, 204. 

489. — Defence is a good cause. Defence is justified in that case. 

490. — That halloo I should know. These words would seem 
properly to belong to the Attendant Spirit, as one of the brothers 
has just hallooed. The explanation is that a necessary stage 
direction, given in both MSS., is omitted in Lawes's edition, in 
both of Milton's, and in subsequent editions. This stage direc- 
tion, according to Masson, following Todd, ran in the Cambridge 
MS., " He hallos: the Guardian Daemon hallos again, and enters 
in the habit of a shepherd," and in the Bridgewater MS., "He 
hallos and is answered: the Guardian Daemon comes in, habited 
like a shepherd." This makes it clear that the speech is prop- 
erly accredited to the Elder Brother, who recognizes something 
familiar in the halloo (the spirit having assumed the guise of a 
shepherd of his father's), but as a precaution bids him declare 
himself and menaces him with attack if he come too near. 
Masson and other editors state incorrectly that the omitted 
stage direction is in Lawes's edition. See the facsimile. 

491. — iron stakes. The points of the brothers' swords. The 
figure seems to be drawn from the use of stakes of iron or iron- 
pointed in ditches or rivers to impale an enemy, a common 
device. The word ''iron" may be pronounced as two "light" 
syllables taking the place of a strong stress — i. e., it is a case of 
resolved stress, or it may be that Milton 'pronounced it, as in 
dialectal and sometimes in individual use, as a monosyllable. 

494-496. — Thyrsis. A traditional name for a shepherd in 
pastoral literature from Theocritus down. A compliment is 
here paid to Henry Lawes, the composer of the music of the 
masque, who played the part. 

494. — artful. Full of art, composed with art. 

495-512. — The recognition of the shepherd and mention of 
his music is signalized by the use of rime. Similarly, in Ben 
Jonson's Sad Shepherd, rimed verse is used with blank verse for 
its pastoral suggestion. (Todd, Masson.) 

495. — huddling. That drives or hurries on with an irregular 
or uneven pace, hurrying. — madrigal. A short love-song or 
its setting; specifically such a song written in parts to be sung 



130 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

without instrumental accompaniment. Note that madrigal 
rimes with dale. The use of rime is due to the pastoral char- 
acter of the reference. 

501. — his next joy. Both brothers are addressed, the elder 
as heir, the younger as next in age. 

502. — toy. A trifling thing as if of value only for amusement 
or for a time. 

503. — stealth. That which is stolen. 

505. — downs. Down, in its original sense, means hill; later, 
a high stretch of open land. 

506. — To. As compared with. — care. Anxiety, anxious 
thought. 

508. — How chance. How does it chance; an idiomatic use 
in which the verb takes no inflection and (see the N. E. D.) 
almost assumes the character of an adverb, as if, in the present 
case, "How, by chance, is she not in your company?" 

509. — sadly. In serious fashion, in earnest, truly. — without 
blame. Without blameworthiness, by no fault (of ours). 

511. — Ay me. Ay is the Middle English interjection ey, O, 
ah. Its use with me is probably adopted from or influenced by 
P>ench ahi as in Old French aymi, Italian ahime, Spanish ay de 
mi. (N. E. D.) 

512. — Prithee. A frequent contraction of pray thee (tell me). 
— shew. The pronunciation of shew as riming with true still 
remains in provincial and old-fashioned use. 

515. — sage poets. Milton conceived truly ^reat poets to 
possess a special wisdom imparted through inspiration. They 
are "sage and solemn" in II Penseroso, 117. They (Milton 
uses the phrase of himself in Paradise Lost, III, 19) are "taught 
by the Heavenly Muse." The poets Milton has here in mind are 
Homer, Vergil, Tasso, and Spenser. Here Milton passes directly 
from the "enchanted isles" to the gate of Hades in the next 
line, which, on the other hand, is a direct echo of Vergil, JEneid, 
VI, 237-241. Milton's reference is, however, to isles in the 
plural, and may include, as editors have suggested, the " Wan- 
dering Islands" of The Faerie Queene, II, xii. 

519. — Milton is surely not merely pretending seriousness of 
belief here; the world of classical myth had, whether in a 
literal or symbolic sense, become real to him. 

520. — navel. Central point; a diminutive of naiw, the hub 
of a wheel. 

526. — murmurs. Murmured spells or incantations. 



NOTES 131 

529. — unmoulding reason's mintage. Milton's word "un- 
moulding," though from a hteral point of view inappropriate 
— coins are stamped with a die — feUcitously suggests the melt- 
ing of a coin and its loss, by that means, of its impress. 

530. — Charactered. Incised or stamped with characters or 
figures, marked. Both noun and verb are common in Eliza- 
bethan English, but the verb is obsolete or archaic now. 

531. — crofts. Pieces of land closed in from rough open land 
for tillage or pasture: here, probably, bits of natural pasture 
as occurring among the woods or rocks of the hills. 

532. — brow. Overhang, as a brow the face. — bottom glade. 
Valley of low-lying land. Bottom, in the sense of an alluvial 
flat, is used dialectically both in England and America. Its 
use attributively, as here, is unusual. 

533. — monstrous rout. Rout of monsters. See Stage direc- 
tion after 1. 92, n. 

534. — stabled wolves. The phrase may perhaps mean 
"wolves in their lairs," if the use of stabled here is similar to that 
in Paradise Lost, XI, 752, where sea-monsters are spoken of as 
stabling in the palaces overwhelmed by the Flood. Its use in 
that passage may, however, be merely a special figurative use, 
and Milton may here refer to wolves in the sheepfold (editors 
cite Vergil's third Eclogue, 80, triste lupus stabulis, a wolf is 
grievous in the fold), which would parallel ''tigers at their 
prey." Or it is remotely possible that it refers to wolves caught 
by being shut in the fold into which they have gone in search of 
prey. The comparison involved may have been suggested, as 
Todd noted, to Ovid, Metamorphoses, XIV, 405, " longis Hecaten 
ululantibus orat," as the rout of Comus do "abhorred rites to 
Hecate" in their secret haunts — which would support the first 
interpretation. 

535. — Doing abhorred rites. This use of do, to perform (a 
ceremony), goes back to the Anglo-Saxon period, though per- 
haps originally derived, or continuously taken over, from the 
Latin. — Hecate. See note on 1. 135. 

536. — obscured. Made obscure (with a view to secrecy), 
hidden from sight. This somewhat special use is made clear 
and emphasized by the parallel phrase "inmost bowers." 

537. — baits. Enticements, lures; a figurative use of bait in 
its original sense of food offered to attract fish or other animals. 
There are natural enticements, in addition to which they use 
the power of magic in their "guileful spells." 



132 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

539. — unwitting. Not knowing (their true character or 
what they mean). 

540. — by then. By the time that. The original phrase "by 
the time that" was shortened to "by then that," "by then," 
and "by that." 

541. — herb. Herbage. 

542. — knot-grass. One of various grasses, so called as having 
knotty stalks or stems; here probably the edible grasses of 
several varieties called "false oats." — besprent. Besprinkled; 
past participle from the obsolete verb bespreng. 

546. — melancholy. See the prefatory note to U Allegro. 

647. — meditate. Practise, exercise. See Lycidas, 66, n. 

548. — ere a close. Ere the close or cadence of a measure. 

551. — listened them. The original construction (with a 
dative case) with hearken, listen, hear, now usual only with hear 
("I heard him through"). 

553. — drowsy-flighted. Lawes's edition and the two editions 
published in Milton's lifetime read "drowsie frighted." The 
Cambridge MS. reads "drowsy flighted." The claims of both 
readings, or variants of them, have been urged as follows: 

1. — drowsy frighted. The three early editions so read. The 
steeds which draw the litter of Sleep are characteristically 
"drowsy," but at the moment they are "frighted" by the up- 
roar of Comus and his crew. But this reading may be due 
simply to an error in Lawes's edition, and its correctness in 
view of the violent conjunction of opposed ideas is improbable, 
especially as compared with (4). 

2. — drowsy- frighted (with a hyphen). There is no gain, but 
rather the reverse, in the slight modification of meaning ("in a 
drowsy fright"). 

3. — drowsy-freighted, that is, "drawing a drowsy freight." 
This reading is of the "ingenious" order and unwarranted. 

4.— drowsy- flighted. This is the reading of Milton's original MS., 
except that (as must often be done) a hyphen is inserted. Edi- 
tors note that the compound adjective is distinctively Miltonic in 
character, and that there can be but little question that Milton 
had in mind the following passage in 2. Itenry VI, IV, i, 3-6: 

And now loud-howling wolves arouse the jades 
That drag the tragic melancholy night; 
Who with their drowsy, slow, and flagging wings 
Clip dead men's graves. 

This reading is in every way preferable. 



NOTES 133 

554. — litter. A bed or couch with curtains designed to be 
drawn or carried. "Close-curtained" is a reminiscence, prob- 
ably of "curtained sleep" (applied to the old canopied bed) in 
Macbeth, II, i, 51, aijd "spread thy close curtain, night," in 
Romeo and Juliet, III, ii,"5. Milton's figure, creating a litter 
for sleep corresponding with the chariot of Phoebus by day, is 
in general his own, but rests, as Osgood notes, on various 
references in the classics to the chariot of Night, Sleep as 
driving the horses of Night, and the chariot of the Moon. 

555-562. — Note the Shakespearean movement of 11. 557-560. 
Masson notes that the " quaintly daring fancy, partly repeated 
in Paradise Lost, IV, 604," rather disturbed the eighteenth- 
century critics, Warton venturing to say, " The conceit in both 
passages is unworthy the poet." A conceit it may be, but of 
the sort that justifies itself as the purest poetry. 

556. — steam of . . . perfumes, <S^eam is misprinted stream in 
the second, and hence in other editions. Todd cites a parallel 
(in which the same comparison is used, but reversed) from the 
forty-sixth essay of Bacon, " And because the breath of flowers 
is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes hke the 
warbling of music) than in the hand, therefore nothing is more 
fit for that delight, than to know what be the flowers and plants 
that do best perfume the air." 

562. — the ribs of Death. The image is probably derived 
from a wood-cut in Quarles's Emblems, picturing a child (the 
soul) within the ribs of a skeleton (typifying death), with the 
motto (Romans, vii, 24), "O wretched man that I am! Who 
shall deliver me from the body of this death?" 

573. — prevent. Come before, anticipate. 

575. — such two. As we should say "such and such per- 
sons." 

578. — sprung. A preterite due to use of the participle in place 
of the true preterite sprang, now no longer possible in good 
usage. Compare drunk for drank, sung for sang, etc. 

583. — confidence. The word is used here in a legitimate, but 
unusual, if not indeed isolated, sense, namely, "that on which 
confidence may be based, the grounds or substance of confi- 
dence." 

585. — period. Sentence; the original meaning of the word, 
as derived from the Greek, is a " circuit " or " cycle," hence, in a 
rhetorical connection, a sentence of some length and of more 
or less elaborate form. 



134 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

587-592. — The theme of the masque is again enunciated — 
here with a further corollary concerning evil (11. 593-597), 
which differs from, but is consonant with, that in the speech 
of the Lady, 11. 217 ff., and of the First Brother, 11. 420 ff. 

592. — happy trial. Happy in its outcome, and therefore not 
to be regarded as grievous, but fortunate. 

598. — pillared firmament. Editors cite in parallel Paradise 
Regained, IV, 455, "the pillared frame of heaven," and Job, 
xxvi, 11, "the pillars of heaven tremble." References in the 
classics to the pillars which bear up heaven might readily be 
added. 

603. — grisly. Inspiring terror; used characteristically in 
Milton's time and earlier (sometimes still) of ghostly things. 
Spenser was fond of the word. 

604. — the sooty flag of Acheron. One of the five rivers of the 
Lower World (see Osgood, s. v. Rivers of Hell, and read Milton's 
description of them in Paradise Lost, II, 574-584), here used 
by metonymy for Hell itself. The phrase " sooty flag " may 
possibly have been suggested by Phineas Fletcher's Locusts, 
"All hell run out, and sooty flags display." 

605. — Harpies and Hydras. The Harpies were loathsome 
winged monsters described by Vergil {^neid. III, 216 ff.) as 
seizing the food of ^Eneas and his followers. The Hydra was 
the many-headed monster slain by Hercules; Milton uses the 
word in the plural to include such monsters in general. His 
association of them with Hell (compare also Paradise Lost, II, 
627 f., and see Osgood) seems referable to Vergil's description 
of .them (jEneid, VI, 286 ff.) as stationed at the mouth of 
Hades. 

606. — Ind. An Anglicized form of French Inde, retained in 
poetic use (c/. Dian, 1. 441, n.). 

607. — purchase. Spoils, booty; a sense common in Eliza- 
bethan English. Cf. Richard III, III, vii, 186, "Made prize 
and purchase of his wanton eye." 

608. — curls. Curled locks are attributed to Comus as con- 
ventionally characteristic (from classic times) of votaries of 
pleasure. 

610, 611. — yet. Still, as certainly. The sense is, "I love 
thy courage and bold emprise (high-spirited eagerness to under- 
take this task) quite as surely and certainly (despite the fact 
I go on to state, namely), but here thy sword can give thee little 
aid." Modern editions (even one which ^ves the meaning of 



NOTES 135 

yet approximately as above) punctuate with a semicolon in place 
of a comma after emprise. The comma seems preferable. 

611. — do thee little stead. Render thee little aid; do is 
similarly used now only with service, good, honor, harm, etc. 

614. — bare wand. Mere wand, wand alone. — unthread thy 
joints. Render the joints powerless by destroying the " threads " 
that bind and move them, namely, the hgaments and tendons. 
The idea is that of destroying all power of motion, and the 
completeness with which Comus can do this is indicated by the 
further phrase in the next line, "and crumble all thy sinews," 
{i. €., nerves, as also in 1. 660). 

619. — a certain shepherd lad. Milton probably had in thought 
here his well-beloved friend, Charles Diodati, who was both a 
physician and a botanist. He addresses him in the Canzone, 
inscribed the first Elegy to him, and in the Epitaphiu7n Damonis 
referred to himself and friend as "Thyrsis et Damon, ejusdem 
vicinise pastores, eadem studia sequuti, a pueritia amici erant, 
ut qui plurimum." In this poem he refers to Diodati 's knowl- 
edge of plants and their healing properties. 

620. — Of small regard to see to. Of small consequence to look 
upon. 

621. — virtuous. Having virtue or power. 

626. — scrip. A bag. 

627. — simples. Herbs used medicinally; so called as indi- 
vidually efficacious in some single malady. 

628. — faculties. Special powers. 

630-633.— Verity calls attention to the awkward succession 
of "but's" in these lines. 

633. — A subject has to be supplied for bore. 

635. — clodted. Patched, or, possibly, hobnailed. — shoon. 
Shoes; an -en plural like oxen. 

638. — Haemony. Probably coined from a classical name for 
Thessaly as a land of magic, Hcemonia. Osgood calls attention 
also to Ovid, Metamorphoses, VII, 159 ff., 264 /. The word 
as a name for a plant comparable with moly is Milton's in- 
vention. 

640. — mildew-blast. The use of blast in the sense of blight 
came from the belief that mildew was due to the blowing upon a 
thing of an evil spirit. An idea of similar kind (but without 
supernatural suggestion) is bound up in damp, a noxious air or 
exhalation, as in fire-damp. 

642. — little reckoning. Supply "of it." 



136 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

646. — lime-twigs. Limed twigs; twigs smeared with bird- 
lime to catch birds. 

655. — sons of Vulcan. Commonly referred, says Osgood, to 
Vergil, A^neid, VIII, 191 ff., where Cacus is described as a son 
of Vulcan. The plural use may be similar to that of " Hydras 
and Chimaeras dire." See 517, 605, nn. But, according to 
Vergil and Ovid, there were other sons than Cacus. 

Stage direction. The scene was changed presumably by the 
"traverse" or screen usually employed for the purpose. — puts 
by. Refuses by pushing aside, or by a gesture as if so doing. — 
goes about to rise. Sets about rising. 

660. — nerves. Sinews; an etymologic sense. 

661. — Daphne, beloved by Apollo and fleeing from him, was 
saved by being turned into a laurel-tree by her father, Peneus; 
hence, according to the fable, the use of the laurel to crown 
poets. 

664. — corporal rind. Shell or hull of the body (as enclosing 
the soul). Compare the Teutonic and Celtic conception of the 
body as a garment, and later figurative references to it as a 
tenement of clay. 

665. — while. While Heaven sees fit to permit it. 

672. — cordial julep. Cordial is here used in its original 
medicinal sense, "having power to refresh or invigorate the 
heart," whence the noun. Julep, also, is used in its original 
sense of a sirup of water and sugar, but in the further limited 
sense of a medicinal drink of mildly invigorating character. The 
word in its Persian form means rose-water. 

675. — Nepenthes. A drug which made end of all pain, sor- 
row, and anger, given to Menelaus by Helen, daughter of Jove, 
his wife, who obtained it of Polydamna, wife of Thon, a woman 
of Egypt. See the Odijssey, IV, 219-230. 

681. — delicacy. Luxuriousness, pleasurable indulgence. 

682. — covenants. Agreements or contracts implied by her 
trust. 

685. — unexempt condition. Condition or article, that was not 
left out or "exempt" in the covenant. 

688. — The antecedent of that, as the verb shows, is the you of 
11. 682, 684. 

698. — vizored. Wearing a vizor, and hence disguised. 

700. — lickerish. Pleasant to the taste, tempting; with a 
suggestion also of lickerous, pleasant, hence enticing, evil. 
The two words had a similar development. 



• NOTES 137 

701. — Juno. The wife of Jupiter, and, moreover, the pattern 
of virtue among the gods. 

707. — budge. Pretentiously solemn; pompous. The ety- 
mology is obscure; N. E. D. suggests comparison with bug, bog, 
boggish, in the same sense, and possible association with budge, 
a kind of fur with the wool dressed outward, sometimes used 
with a depreciatory or contemptuous implication. Milton, 
having in mind the scholastic furred gowns or hoods {budge 
was used at Cambridge for hoods, according to Todd, at least 
in the fifteenth century), may have coined the phrase " budge 
doctors" intending to suggest contemptuously the budge bach- 
elors so called, a company of poor old men dressed in gowns of 
budge, who attended the Lord Mayor in the procession on Lord 
Mayor's Day. — the Stoic fur. A figurative use of the furs ap- 
propriated to distinguish special academic rank, degrees, or 
subject. A leading principle of the Stoic and of the Cynic phi- 
losophy was renunciation of the pleasures of the senses. 

708. — the Cynic tub. Of Diogenes, the leading exponent of 
the Cynic philosophy, who, according to the story, in rebuke of 
ostentation and pride, made his home in a tub. 

711. — unwithdrawing hand. Not drawing back or ceasing 
its gifts. 

714. — curious. Careful in choice; hence difficult to please. 

716. — smooth-haired silk. Not rough like wool or linen fibre. 

718. — her own loins. The earth is considered as the body of 
productive nature. 

719. — hutched. Stored as in a hutch or chest. — all-wor- 
shipped ore. Gold. 

721. — pet. A sudden fit of ill-humor. — pulse. Dried peas 
or beans as used for cooking or as cooked. 

722. — frieze. A kind of coarse woollen cloth rough in finish 
on one side: used allusively as worn characteristically by the 
poor. 

725. — as a grudging master. As if he were a grudging 
master. 

728. — surcharged. Overweighted. 

732-736. — This passage is a conceit of the gorgeously hyper- 
bolic kind. The meaning is as follows: The sea "o'erfraught" 
(overfreighted, loaded down with its multitudes) passes its 
banks and discovers the "unsought" diamonds (that is, those 
unknown to men) where they lie in the earth, which the"reupon 
emblaze the forehead of the encroaching flood, and there serve 



138 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

as if stars, so that "they below" (the inhabitants of the deep) 
grow "inured to Hght" and thus, in a way contrary to their 
nature, come at last to gaze upon the sun itself without averting 
their gaze, shamed by its brilliance, as before. 

The meaning, in a somewhat different form, comes out more 
clearly in the original MS. version. The term " centre," it may 
be premised, is presumably used elliptically, as elsewhere by 
Milton and by poets of the period, for "centre of the earth." 

The sea o'erfraught would heave her waters up 
Above the shore, and the unsought diamonds 
Would so bestud the centre with their starlight . . . 

745. — brag. Boast, that which Nature may boast of. 

748, 749. — homely . . . home. Not a play on words, as 
editors are careful to note. Comus merely appeals to the 
etymology. 

750. — of sorry grain. Poor or inferior in point of color. — 
Grain in the sense of dye (hence color) is due to the old error 
of supposing the dried bodies of cochineal insects, as imported, 
to be the seeds or berries of a plant, which they closely resemble. 
Compare the etymology of cochineal, crimson, vermilion. 

750, 751. — ply the sampler. Work the sampler, or set piece 
of embroidery formerly embroidered by girls as a sample or 
proof of their skill with the needle. — tease. Card or comb with 
teasels (heads of a certain kind of thistle armed with stiff hooked 
barbs). The reader will note the striking use of metonymy in 
this passage, complexions and cheeks being spoken of as plying 
the sampler and teasing the wool. 

751. — huswife. A variant of housewife; compare husband. 

752. — vermeil-tinctured. Tinctured with vermilion. 

755.— Think what. Supply "that is." 

756. — to have unlocked. The use of the perfect infinitive 
after a past tense, logically incorrect, is still frequent, more 
especially in British English. 

758. — To deceive my judgment, as he did my eyes by his 
disguise. 

759. — Obtruding. Thrusting forward or urging (something 
objectionable or not desired). — pranked. Decked out. 

760. — I hate. I hate it. — bolt. Sift out, examine as by 
sifting. The figure is drawn from the "bolting" or sifting of 
flour. 

761. — pride. Arrogant assumption. 



NOTES 139 

767. — spare Temperance. Sparing or moderate. 

768-779. — Editors point out the parallel passages, perhaps in 
Milton's mind, in Lear, III, iv, 33-36; IV, i, 73 /. 

770. — lewdly. In a manner characterized by loose indulgence. 

773. — In unsuperfluous even proportion. In even shares, not 
giving an unnecessary amount to any one. 

780.— enow. Enough. Enow came from the inflected, 
enough from the uninflected forms of A. S. genoh. The form 
enow was usual with plurals. 

785. — notion. Idea. The word is now cheapened in mean- 
ing through familiar use. 

790. — dear. Hard to come by, forced. — gay. Showy, pre- 
tentious. 

791. — fence. Use of the sword in fencing, art or practice of 
fencing: used figuratively. 

797. — brute earth. Brutish or insensate earth; an echo of 
Horace's bruta tellus (Odes, I, xxxiv, 9). — nerves. Sinews. 

800. — fables. Speaks falsely, fabricates. 

802. — dew. Sweat; so still in "dews of death." 

803. — Dips. Suffuses or covers with moisture as if by dip- 
ping into a liquid. — wrath of Jove. Against his father, Saturn, 
and against the giants or Titans. Jove, by means of his 
thunder-bolts (" speaks thunder ") hurled the Titans down to the 
underworld. 

807.— direct. Directed. 

808. — canon laws of our foundation. First principles or es- 
sential rules on which our existence is based. 

810. — melancholy blood. Blood affected by preponderance 
of "melancholy," one of the four "humors" (blood, choler, 
phlegm, and melancholy) which, according to the old medical 
theory, determined by their relative proportion at any time the 
mental and physical condition of a person. Melancholy was 
said to sink like lees in wine in the blood and corrupt it (so Nash, 
in his Terrors of the Night, cited by Todd). 

816, 817. — Such a reversal of spells in both actions and 
words is the characteristic mode in magic to dissever or break a 
charm. 

822. — MelibcEus. A stock name for a shepherd in pastoral 
poetry derived from Vergil's first Eclogue. The reference here 
is to Spenser {Faerie Queene, II, x, st. 14-19), not, as is some- 
times said, to Geoffrey of Monmouth, who first told the story of 
Sabrina. 



140 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

823. — soothest. Truest, most trustworthy. 

825. — curb. Curb bit, not our colloquial "curb" for curb- 
rein; compare 1. 887. 

827. — Whilom. Once on a while. 

828. — Brute. A descendant of iEneas who, according to 
Celtic and, by appropriation, English, tradition, landed in 
Britain and became the forefather of the British people. 

830. — Milton alters the story. Guendolen was not Sabrina's 
step-dame. In the original, in Geoffrey of Monmouth (and in 
Milton's own History of Britain), Guendolen makes war upon 
Locrine, the king, who has put her aside for the worthless 
Estrildis, Sabrina's mother, and throws Estrildis and Sabrina 
into the river, which thereafter bears Sabrina's name in com- 
memoration. By his changes and by saying nothing of Es- 
trildis, he makes Sabrina a more nearly perfect type of innocence 
for his purpose, and heightens the pathos of her fate. 

834. — pearled. Commentators have endeavored to justify or to 
explain Milton's references to pearls, to Nereus (1. 835), to coral 
(1. 886), in connection with an English river. But these adorn- 
ments are traditionally appropriate to sea-nymphs, and were 
used by Drayton in describing Sabrina {Polyolhion, V, 13 ff.). 

835. — aged Nereus. One of the more important of the sea- 
gods under Neptune. He is called the "Ancient One" by 
Homer {Iliad, XVIII, 141) and grandoevus by Vergil. His 
kindness to Sabrina is in accordance with the just and gentle 
character ascribed to- him by Hesiod. See Osgood, s. v., "sea- 
gods." 

836. — lank. Languid, drooping; a rare, perhaps an individual 
use. 

837. — imbathe. To place in a bath; the prefix has somewhat 
the effect of an intensive, "to bathe with care or with a special 
purpose." 

838. — nectared lavers. Perfumed bathing vessels. Milton, 
as Osgood points out, drew the suggestion of perfume in con- 
nection with nectar, the drink of the gods, from the classics, and 
hence his use of nectar in the sense of an ointment {Death of a 
Fair Infant, 49, and Lycidas, 175) may be • explained. — as- 
phodel. A liliaceous plant transmuted by the classic poets 
into the deathless flower that covered the fields of Elysium. 
A variant of the derived modern word gave us (how is un- 
known, but possibly owing to French fieur d'affodil) our plant 
name daffodil. 



NOTES 141 

839. — The eyes, mouth, nostrils, and ears. Editors point out 
the reminiscence of Hamlet, I, v, 63, "the porches of mine 
ears." 

840. — ambrosial. Immortal. See 16, n. 

845. — urchin blasts. The word urchin, meaning properly a 
hedgehog, came to be applied to imps and elves, as supposed to 
take that shape, and was hence applied humorously to small 
children, especially boys, giving the sense in which we most 
commonly meet it. Here the sense is "elfish blasts." For 
blasts, seel.' 640, n. 

846. — shrewd. Mahcious; an obsolete sense. 

858. — adjuring. That serves to call or invoke. 

863. — amber-dropping. Dropping perfume as of ambergris 
(the original meaning of amber). When amber came to be ap- 
plied to the fossil resin, its original meaning was specially indi- 
cated by the addition of gris, gray. Ambergris is a waxy sub- 
stance, a morbid secretion of the whale found floating or in the 
whale's body. It is of great value in making perfumes and was 
originally also used in cookery. 

868. — Oceanus. The god of the ocean-stream fabled to 
girdle the earth. The epithet "great," as Osgood notes, is ap- 
plied to him by Homer and Hesiod. Note the change to rime. 

869. — mace. The trident. Milton may have taken the word 
mace from Drayton's Polyolbion, XI, 104. 

870. — Tethys. The wife of Oceanus. 

871. — wrinkled. As being the "Ancient One" of the sea. 

872. — the Carpathian wizard's hook. Proteus. Milton 
styles him wizard, or "wise man;" because he is referred to as a 
vates, or soothsayer, by Vergil and Ovid. Milton speaks of his 
hook because he was the shepherd of the flocks, namely the 
seals, of Neptune (Ben Jonson calls him the "shepherd of the 
seas" in the Fortunate Isles). He is called "Carpathian," as 
dwelling in the Carpathian sea, named from the island of Car- 
pathos between Crete and Rhodes. The line is sometimes 
referred to as an example of the occasionally recondite char- 
acter of Milton's allusions. 

873. — Triton. A sea-monster and divinity with a forked 
fish's tail (hence "scaly"). He blows upon the twisted shell 
to summon the deities of the sea in his capacity as the herald of 
Neptune. 

874. — Glaucus. A fisherman who became immortal by 
means of an herb and was changed to a sea-god. He was a 



U2 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

soothsayer, according to classic tradition. Compare Spenser, 
Faerie Queene, IV, xi, 3, as noted by Osgood. 

875, 876. — Leucothea. A mortal, Ino, wife of Athamas, who, 
in terror lest Athamas in his madness should slay herself and 
her remaining son as he had the other, plunged with him into 
the sea, where they became divinities, Ino under the name of 
Leucothea, and her son under the name of Palsemon, or, in 
Latin, Portumnus, god of harbors. Homer speaks of her fair 
ankles and of her hands. 

877.— Thetis. A Nereid, mother of Achilles. Milton's 
"tinsel-footed" is an adaptation of Homer's "silver-footed." 

878.— See 1. 253 and n. 

Stage direction, rises. Probably through a trap, a device 
frequently used in masques. The play from now on is pure 
masque and in a metre characteristic of the masque. 

893. — azurn. A rare, perhaps individual use on Milton's 
part, of azure parallel to leathern, silvern, for leather, silver. 

895. — Milton is not referring to actual precious stones. 
Sabrina is speaking of her sliding chariot, namely, the river itself. 
The precious stones that "stray" in the channel figure the 
changeful colors of the water, agate, the azure sheen of tur- 
quoise, and emerald. She steps, as she says in the next line, 
from the sliding waters fleet, where they pause in the eddying 
back-water by the bank. 

897. — printless feet. From the Tempest, V, i, 34. The idea, 
frequently used by poets, has its general origin in Vergil's 
description of Camilla, Mneid, VII, 808. 

898. — velvet head. From Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess, one 
of the sources of Milton's inspiration. 

904.— band. Bond. 

913. — precious cure. Precious power to cure. 

914. — Touching of eyes, ears, lips, etc., frequently appears as 
essential to a charm. Jonson, for example, uses it in the 
Fortunate Isles, which may have been the special suggestion of 
its use to Milton. 

916. — seat. The poisoned chair in Which the Lady sits. 

917. — heat. Quality, specific property: an obsolete sense. 

921. — Amphitrite. The wife of Neptune, Sabrina being 
represented as one of her ladies-in-waiting. 

923. — Anchises' line. Locrine was the son of Brutus (see 1. 
828, n.). and hence sprung through Silvius, Ascanius, and 
iEneas, from Anchises. 



NOTES 143 

927.— snowy hills. Of Wales. 

928. — singed air. As if itself burned with heat. 

932, 933.— See 1. 834, n. 

934-937. — " May thy lofty source be crowned with towers and 
terraces, and here and there upon thy banks may thou be 
crowned with groves of myrrh and cinnamon," that is, groves 
of spicy perfume as if of myrrh and cinnamon. 

Stage direction. Country Dancers. Masquers taking part in 
a contra-dance, in which the dancers stand opposite each other 
in lines. Our Virginia Reel is a contra or "country" dance. 

960. — duck or nod. The bobbed courtesies and bowings 
characteristic of a rustic dance. 

962. — court guise. Fashion of the court. 

963. — Osgood points out (s. v. Hermes) that while no specific 
authority can be quoted for this passage the classics support 
it by implication. 

964. — mincing. Moving daintily. — Dryades. The nymphs 
of the woods. 

965. — lawns and . . . leas. Pastures and meadows. 

972. — assays. Trials, here probably in the concrete sense of 
"that which tries, afflictions, tribulations," as elsewhere in 
Milton. 

Stage direction. Dances. The series of dances for which 
the dramatic portion of a masque affords a setting. 

976. — Ariel's song in The Tempest, V, i, 88, is usually cited as 
a parallel to this passage. 

980. — liquid. Clear (like clear water), a Latinism, from the 
use of liquidus in poetry, still used in this phrase, but with 
liquid generally understood as meaning "easily flowing." 

981-983.— See 1. 393, n. 

984. — crisped. According to N. E. D. of uncertain sense as 
applied to trees. Herrick uses it of the yew. Milton's use is 
poetically suggestive, merely, no doubt, rather than definite. 
The physical sense is "curled," used of the hair, but it was also 
early used of surfaces covered with waves or ripples. That the 
figure is, however, definitely that of "curled," used of the hair, 
seems clear from the fact that Drayton {Polyolbion, V, 231) 
speaks of the "curled top" of Narber, a forest nymph. 

985. — spruce. Originally "finely dressed in a modish way." 
The word bettered in meaning, and Milton uses it to convey an 
impression of neatness and freshness. It implies now a rather 
unrefined smartness and tidiness of appearance. 



144 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

986. — The Graces, traditionally three, though Homer does 
not limit the. number, were goddesses who had the power of 
bestowing upon others the graces of beauty and personal 
charm which they themselves embody. They are frequently 
associated in the classics with the Hours which, as Osgood 
notes, are associated in Homer with all the seasons, but by 
later classical writers, whom Milton foUow^s, with Spring 
and the flowers. "Rosy-bosomed" refers to their glowing 
beauty. 

989. — musky. Used, as also nard and cassia below, merely 
allusively, not literally, to suggest rare and delicious perfume. 

990.— cedarn. See 1. 893, n. 

991. — Nard. The aromatic plant which yielded the ointment 
of the same name used by the ancients. The word is ultimately 
of Oriental origin. It appears as the main element of the com- 
pound spikenard. — cassia. A plant producing an inferior kind 
of cinnamon, the Cinnamomum cassia of botanists. 

992.— See 1. 83, n. 

993. — blow. Bear; a transitive use of blow, blossom. 

995. — purfled. Banded, though purfled really means edged 
or bordered. The term is still used of an edging of inlay on an 
instrument or elsewhere. 

999. — See Nativity Ode, 204. In the Greek myth Adonis is 
loved by Aphrodite. Milton refers to the Oriental myth in 
"Assyrian queen," 1. 1002. 

1003, 1004. — far above. . . advanced. Cupid and Psyche serve 
to typify a higher type of love. In the late classical myth (or 
perhaps allegory). Psyche (who, as her name indicates, typifies 
the soul), because of her extraordinary beauty, was ordered by 
Venus, through jealousy, to be exposed upon a mountain. 
Cupid rescues her and makes her his wife, coming to her, in the 
beautiful palace he provides, by night, so that she does not 
know who her husband is. Her sisters visit her and advise her 
to steal a look at her husband while he sleeps, in spite of his 
orders, lest he might be a monster. She does so, beholds the 
divinely beautiful god, but unfortunately wakens him by a 
drop of burning oil from her lamp. She'wanders over the earth 
mourning his loss, and is followed by the continued hatred 
of Venus, who imposes upon her a series of impossible labors 
which she performs by miraculous help. Finally at Cupid's 
prayer Jupiter makes her immortal and they are reunited. 
Osgood notes that in our source for the myth, Apuleius, Cupid 



NOTES 145 

and Psyche have but one child, Voluptas, while Milton gives 
them two (11. 1010, 1011). 

1012. — smoothly. Successfully, skilfully. 

1015. — The bowed or bent welkin is imagined as curving less 
at the extremes of the earth, where it is more like a vertical 
wall. 

1017. — corners. The horns of the moon; perhaps borrowed 
from Macbeth, III, v, 23. 

1021. — sphery chime. The music of the spheres, here, by 
metonymy, for the spheres or stars themselves. 

VII. LYCIDAS 

Lijcidas was written in 1637, and published in Cambridge in 
1638 in a volume containing thirty-six poems in Greek, Latin, 
and English, in memory of Edward King, who was drowned 
in the Irish Sea, August 10, 1637. Edward King was Fellow of 
Christ's College at the time of his death, and greatly admired 
and loved as these tributes prove. The original manuscript, 
and a copy of the 1638 edition, with corrections by Milton, are 
preserved at Cambridge. A number of revisions appear in the 
edition of 1645, and still a few more in that of 1673. They 
illustrate in an instructive way Milton's care in perfecting his 
work. 

Lycidas is a pastoral elegy. An elegy is a poem lamenting 
the death of a person and paying tribute to his memory. The 
writing of such poems had long been customary in England, and 
not a few, in imitation of famous classical elegies, had been 
written in the pastoral mode. A pastoral is a poem in imitation 
of the songs of shepherds, or, in a later development, a narrative 
poem of country life with shepherds and rustic folk as the 
characters. The famous Greek writers of pastoral, Theocritus 
and Moschus, and, in Latin, Vergil, who copied the Greek 
pastoral closely, were more or less faithful in picturing the 
real country, even though they idealized it somewhat and 
sometimes represented themselves, their friends, or some cur- 
rent event, in these poems allegorically. Their pastorals were 
imitated by Italian, French, Spanish, and English poets of the 
Renaissance, to whom the mode was wholly an artificial, though 
charming, convention. These later pastorals portray, most of 
them, an entirely imaginary country life of ideal happiness and 
contentment, simplicity and homely virtues, where shepherds 



146 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

spend their time tending their sheep and singing in contests of 
skill or in praise of the happiness of their lives or of the lovely 
shepherdesses who have conquered their hearts. Elements 
originally foreign to the mode were added — characters from 
classic mythology, knights, magicians, and lovely ladies from 
the romances, witches, spells, and superstitions from native 
folk-lore. The mode was used in prose romances and in plays 
as well as in poems. In England the fashion of the pastoral, 
which was at its height from 1580 to 1590, was set by Spenser's 
Shepherds^ Calendar and Sidney's prose romance, the Arcadia. 
It persisted into the seventeenth century, and so general was 
its use that we find it employed in most curious ways — for 
example, Phineas Fletcher gave his poem on the human body, 
The Purple Island, a pastoral setting. 

The use of the pastoral form for an elegy may at first seem 
strange, but, in point of fact, Theocritus and Moschus, and after 
them Vergil had done this, and Milton might well follow them, 
even though he might not observe a similar degree of fidelity 
and appropriateness to the demands of the form. He did not 
do so — especially in the famous passage, 11. 108-131, in which 
he arraigned the evils in the Church. For the artistic unfitness 
of this passage it is not possible to offer apology — that Milton 
felt it is shown by the sub-title of the poem. The bonds of the 
pastoral were, to be sure, of the loosest: one might take what 
liberty one willed, and, as has been shown, Milton's master, 
Spenser, had set forth the contest between Catholicism and 
Protestantism in the Shepherds^ Calendar, and Phineas Fletcher 
had attacked the "corrupted clergy " in his Piscatory Eclogues. 
The true justification of the passage, however, is the fact that 
it is an outburst of passionate personal feeling. In any case 
we could ill spare it, whatever academic objections may be 
brought against it. Another charge against the poem is its 
awkward collocation of matters Christian and pagan. Milton's 
characteristic freedom in this regard has been treated in the 
Introduction ; there was nothing repugnant in such a collocation 
to Milton's critical taste or that of Milton's time, whether in 
pastoral poetry or elsewhere. The charge, that one cannot feel 
Lycidas to be an expression of true feeling, that too much of 
Milton himself appears in it, merits a brief word. We really do 
not know how well Milton knew Edward King. He may 
merely have been asked to contribute to a volume in honor of a 
fellow-collegian whose distinguished abilities and untimely 



NOTES 147 

death made a general expression of feeling appropriate. If 
this is true, the usual reply that the poem is primarily a work of 
art is quite sufficient. 

Lycidas marks unmistakably an advance in Milton's poetic 
power. With due allowance for the fact that Comus is a longer 
poem, that its inspiration must needs flag now and again under 
stress of its didactic purpose, and with clearest recognition of 
its noble beauty throughout, the admission must still be made 
that in perfection of form, combined sweetness and majesty of 
movement, the essentially concrete, purely poetic, character of 
its imagery and diction, even in its polemic passage, Lycidas is 
supreme. It is, as Tennyson termed it, a "touchstone of 
poetic taste." 

Title. Milton selects for Edward King, as the elegy is in the 
form of a pastoral, the name Lycidas, found as a shepherd's 
name in Theocritus, Idyls, VII, and in Vergil, Eclogues, IX. 
The MS. was originally entitled simply "Lycidas: Novemb., 
1637." In the edition of 1645, the title was altered to its 
present form. 

Monody. A lyric ode, so called as supposed to be sung by 
a single voice, among modern poets, as here, an elegy or 
dirge. 

1-6. — once more. Milton refers to the fact that he had 
written little or no verse since Comus in 1634. He pictures his 
return to poetry figuratively by representing himself as coming 
to pluck the berries and leaves of the laurel, myrtle, and ivy, 
plants associated directly or indirectly with poetry — the laurel 
because poets were crowned with it, the myrtle as sacred to 
Venus, the ivy as sacred to Bacchus. The reference to his 
coming "before the mellowing year" and disturbing their 
"season due" (plucking them out of proper season) indicates 
that Milton, as when he wrote Comus, still felt that he was not 
yet fully prepared for the high service of poetry. Note, how- 
ever, also the time of the year of King's death. 

3. — crude. Unripe. 

5. — Shatter. Throw into confusion in the act of picking. 

10. — Imitated from Vergil, Eclogues, X, 2, 3, "neget quis 
carmina Gallo." — He knew. Edward King had written Latin 
verse, which is extant, and perhaps other verse which Milton 
had seen. The omission of how before the infinitive is frequent 
in Elizabethan English and is still used in poetic diction. 

11. — In the MS. Milton used the correct spelling, rime. 



148 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

13. — welter. Toss or roll irregularly. — parching. Edward 
King's body is conceived of as weltering on the sea, then thrown 
on shore, then carried away again by the tide. (See 1. 154 and 
note.) The wind parches the body as it lies on the sand. 

14. — melodious tear. A notable example of poetic ellipsis. 

15-22. — These lines, forming the invocation, are modelled 

upon Theocritus, Idyls, I, 64. 

f 15. — Sisters of the sacred well. Milton is here following He- 

t siod in the opening of his Theogony, who describes the Muses as 

dancing about the dark spring of Aganippe on Mount Helicon, 

and about the altar of the mighty son of Chronos, Milton's 

"seat of Jove." See Osgood, s. v. Muses. Milton, as Verity 

notes, invented the source of the spring as beneath the altar. 

/ 19. — Muse. Here used for poet. 

20. — lucky. Offering good wishes. — urn. Urns were used by 
the ancients to hold the ashes of the dead. 

22. — shroud. Sometimes explained as the shroud meaning 
shelter, but usually interpreted as the winding-sheet. 

23-36. — This imagery, appropriate to the pastoral form, 
must b • taken merely as general in its reference. Edward King 
and the poet were together in Christ's College, both were en- 
gaged in study. The detail is merely incidental to the pastoral 
style and not specific. 

26. — The metaphor, as Verity notes, is one used by many 
poets before and since Milton. The MS. and edition of 1638 
have glimmering in place of opening. 

27. — drove. That is, "drove our flocks." 

28. — gray-fly. The precise fly meant is uncertain. The 
dor-bug, which flies after sunset, has been suggested. 

30. — The evening star is meant, though it do^s not rise. 
Compare Comus, 93, n. 

32-36. — While the details of this description are largely 
conventional, this passage may refer, as Verity suggests, to the 
activity of Cambridge in poetry at this time. 

33. — See Comus, 345, n. 
I 34. — Fauns. The Latin name for the Satyrs, a name orig- 
inally Greek, though used in Latin. 

36. — old Damoetas. A shepherd's name used by Theocritus 
and Vergil. This might appear a specific reference, but may 
simply be intended to suggest an old shepherd listening with 
pleasure to the younger as they play. 

45. — canker. The canker-worm. 



NOTES 149 

46. — taint-worm. The worm meant is not known. A spider, 
called a "tainct," described by Sir Thomas Browne, has been 
suggested, but a spider is not a worm, and the term taint is one 
that might be applied to any insect supposedly injurious. 

48. — white-thorn. The hawthorn. 

50. — Verity notes that this appeal to the Nymphs is modelled 
on Theocritus, Idyls, I, 66-69, and on Vergil, Eclogues, X, 9-12. 
The places referred to are near the scene of his loss. 

52. — Perhaps, as Warton suggested, the Druid burial-places 
at Kerig y Druidion in Denbighshire, spoken of by Camden. 

54. — Mona. The isle of Anglesey. 

55. — Deva. The Dee, a "wizard stream," as able, according 
to tradition, to foretell the fortunes of England and Wales, 
between which it flows, by changing its course. 

61-63.— Orpheus, having, after the loss of Eurydice, treated the 
Thracian women with scorn, was torn to pieces by them, and his 
head thrown into the Hebrus, whence it was carried to Lesbos. 

61. — rout. A company, especially a disorderly company, of 
persons. Comus's band are described as a rout. See Stage 
direction a,t\. 93. .-,.. o. 

64-84. — This famous passage is sometimes regarded as a 
digression, and in one sense it is, but it is not one like that in 
11. 113-131, and it is connected with and naturally suggested by 
what precedes, though Milton is plainly thinking more about 
himself than of Edward King. 

65. — "Shepherd" is here used, as in the pastoral allegory 
above, as practically equivalent to poet. 

66. — meditate the thankless Muse. To meditate the Muse 
(Vergil's " musam meditari," Eclogues, I, 2, 6, 8) is to compose 
poetry. The Muse is "thankless" in that the poet gets httle or 
nothing in return. 

67. — use. Are used to do. 

68> 69. — Amaryllis,- Neaera. Names of sweethearts used in 
pastoral verse. 

70. — Fame is sufficient reward, but (1. 73) Death ever fore- 
stalls this. — clear. Pure, single in intention. 

71. — A mind so noble that it has conquered other infirmities 
may still feel the desire for fame. The idea is taken from 
classical sources. 

74. — blaze. Glory, brilliance: a metaphorical use of blaze in 
its sense of a sudden or brilliant flashing into flame, found from 
the fifteenth century to our own day. 



150 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

75. — blind Fury, Atropos, one of the three Fates (not 
Furies) is intended. The three Fates controlled the lives of 
men. Clotho spun the thread, Lachesis determined the 
destiny, and Atropos severed it with her shears. 

76. — slits. Cut, not in the specialized sense of "cut length- 
wise." — But not. But does not sever or destroy. 

77. — Phoebus. Apollo, the god of poetry. He touches the 
ears as the seat of memory to intimate that the poet needs a 
reminder of what he should not forget. 

79. — The meaning may be cleared of difficulty either by 
supplying lies from the next line, or by supplying a copula. 
The sense is, " Nor is fame set off to the world in the glittering 
foil (that is, gold-leaf, typifying external show) nor," etc., or 
" Nor does fame lie (consist) in the foil set off (made a show of) 
to the world, nor," etc. 

81. — But lives and spreads aloft through the infallible de- 
cision assured by the clear-judging scrutiny and the wholly just 
testimony of Jove (here, as elsewhere in Milton, the Deity under 
the classic name to accord with the classic coloring of the 
pastoral). 

85.-^Arethuse. The spring Arethusa in Ortygia, near Syra- 
cuse. Arethusa, beloved by Alpheus in Arcadia, fled to Sicily 
and became this spring. Here used, as Alpheus in 1. 132, to 
typify pastoral poetry, Sicily and Arcadia being the land of 
pastorals. 

86. — The Mincius flowed near Mantua, the birthplace of 
Vergil, and here typifies Latin pastoral poetry, as Arethusa the 
Greek. 

87. — that strain. What Apollo has said. 

89. — herald of the sea. Triton (see Comus, 873, w.), herald 
of Neptune, god of the sea, who called the lesser deities to his 
counsels. 

96. — Hippotades. The son of Hippotes, iEolus, god of the winds. 

97. — Verity points out the curious fact that Edward King's 
brother, Henry King, in his poem in the memorial volume (see 
the prefatory note) distinctly refers to the vessel's having 
struck on a rock during a gale. Whether Milton was or was 
not informed of this fact, he certainly takes a poetical license. 

99. — Panope. with all her sisters. The Nereids, the fifty 
daughters of the sea-god, Nereus. 

101. — eclipse. Referring to the belief that anything done 
at the time of an eclipse is destined to evil fortune. 



NOTES 151 

103'. — Camus. The deity of the river Cam, and therefore 
used to represent Cambridge. 

104. — bonnet sedge. His bonnet (the word was formerly ap- 
pHed to caps and other head-coverings of men) is of sedge as 
characteristic of a river-god. 

105. — dim. Presumably with age, if used in its present 
sense, but dim in Milton's time meant* also simply "dark" 
(as in Comus, 5), and this is probably the sense here. Some 
commentators explain the "figures" as the markings on the 
sedge, but this does not accord with its edging of crimson. 

106. — sanguine flower. The hyacinth which sprang from 
the blood of Hyacinthus, slain by Zephyrus. It is "inscribed 
with woe," as the ancients read the markings of the petals as 
oi'at, "alas!" 

107. — pledge. Child. This use is derived from a child con- 
sidered as a pledge of love between its parents. 

108-131. — Ruskin has a full commentary on the passage in 
Sesame and Lilies. 

109. — the Pilot. St. Peter, to whom Christ gave the keys of 
the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew, xvi, 19), here introduced 
as representing the Church, Edward King having purposed to 
take orders. Milton calls him "pilot" (steersman, not neces- 
sarily in the special modern sense), though he and his brother 
are referred to simply as fishermen. It must not of course be 
supposed that in using St. Peter in this way Milton subscribed 
to the Roman Catholic doctrine that St. Peter was the founder 
of the Roman church, and that to it is therefore given exclu- 
sively the "power of the keys." 

110. — The keys are traditionally regarded as two in number, 
the one representing the power of binding, the other of loosing. 
Milton very effectively makes the one of gold, the other of iron, 
in place of gold and silver, as in Dante. 

112. — mitred. Wearing the mitre, or bishop's cap, in token 
of his authority. 

113. — The appropriateness of this passage of passionate 
denunciation, as out of keeping with the pastoral setting of the 
poem, ;s discussed in the prefatory note. 

114.^— Enow. Enough, that is, plenty. Verity suggests that 11. 
114, 115 come with special force from St. Peter; see 1. Peter, v, 2. 

116.— Of other care. Of other duty. 

117. — Than how to scramble for the largest share at the feast 
provided for the shearers. 



152 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

119. — Blind mouths. "Men naught else but mouths, and 
bhnd to all save what they may devour." 

119-121. — Milton here makes effective use of the traditional 
representation of the clergy as pastors or shepherds of their 
"flocks," and essays to bring this passage in some measure into 
unity with the pastoral character of the poem by its means 
through the word ''swain" in 1. 113. 

122. — What recks. Of what account is it? — sped. Provided 
for, cared for, 

123. — flashy. Frothy, hence without substance, vapid. 
Milton often refers in his prose writings to the emptiness and 
ignorance of the preaching of his day. 

124. — scrannel. Weak, thin, piping (used of the voice). 
Wright gives an illustration from the Nottinghamshire dialect: 
"She had such a scrannel voice." 

128, 129.— Usually held to refer to the secret ("privy") 
activity of the Roman Catholics in making proselytes at this 
time, without any serious attempts ("and nothing said") being 
made to put an end to it by the authorities of the Church. 

130. — two-handed engine. "Engine" here has its general 
sense of "tool" or "instrument." Milton undoubtedly means 
a sword, the adjective "two-handed" being apparently a 
reminiscence of 2. Henry VI, II, i, 46, but the question what 
sword he refers to, literally or figuratively, is still in doubt, 
despite many conjectures. The "engine" has been explained 
as the axe which should, as it did later, assail the evil in the 
Church by beheading Laud, as the axe laid to the root of the 
tree in the parable (Matthew, iii, 10) ; as the two houses of Pariia- 
ment; as the two-edged sword of Revelation, i, 16; as the sword 
of St. Michael (merely because this was two-handed in Paradise 
Lost, II, 294, VI, 250-253); and as the sword of Justice. This 
last conjecture, that offered by Verity, is the best. He cites 
from Milton's Tenure of Kings, "be he king, or tyrant, or 
emperor, the sword of Justice is above him," and, again, "the 
trial of Justice which is the sword of God, superior to all mortal 
things." — at the door. Close at hand. 

132, 133.— Alpheus. See 1. 85, n. 

137. — wanton. Unrestrained. 

138. — swart star. Sirius, the dog-star, here called swart, or 
dark, because of his connection with the dog-day heats, and the 
withering they cause. — sparely looks. Looks but little, little 
affects. 



NOTES 153 

139. — quaint. Noticeably beautiful: an obsolete sense. — 
enamelled. Beautified with various colors like enamel work. 

142.— rathe. Early. 

143. — crow-toe. The wild hyacinth; now obsolete in this 
use. — pale. White. 

144. — freaked. Streaked or spotted. 

146. — well-attired woodbine. Milton's woodbine is probably 
the honeysuckle, and "well-attired" probably refers to its 
profusion of flowers. 

149. — amaranthus. The prince's feather, or the love-lies- 
bleeding, according to the old herbals. Milton does not here 
mean the classic amaranthus, the unfading flower of heaven, 
or he would not pass on to speak of " daffadillies." 

150. — daffadilly. The familiar daffadowndilly, or narcissus. 
See Comus, 838, n. 

151. — laureate hearse. The hearse here meant is a special 
structure used in funerals, including the bier and frame above 
bearing armorial bearings and other decorations. To this 
often elegiac verses were pinned by friends of the dead person, 
rendering less figurative than it appears to us Milton's epithet 
"laureate," decked with laurel, by which he means the poems 
contributed by himself and others to the memorial volume on 
Edv/ard King. 

152. — " For so, to ease us a moment of our grief, let our 
thoughts, ' frail ' because the real truth soon comes back to us, 
dally with the false surmise that the body of Lycidas is with us, 
while really (11. 154 ^.) still at the mercy of the sea." 

154. — "Whilst back and forth from sea to shore thou art 
washed." A Uold ellipsis, but justified by its vigor. 

158. — monstrous world. World of, that is, peopled by, 
monsters. Compare Comus, 533. 

159. — moist vows. Votive rites accompanied by tears. 

160. — fable of Bellerus. Fabled Bellerus. Bellerus is Mil- 
ton's own personification of Land's End, or Bellerium, the op- 
posite extreme from the Hebrides. 

161. — vision of the guarded mount. The apparition of St. 
Michael, occupying, according to tradition, the "chair" called 
by his name on St. Michael's Mount near Penzance, and hence 
"guarded." 

162./— ^Namancos. A town, or possibly only a castle, in 
Galicia, near Finisterre, shown in Mercator's Atlas, 1623 and 
1636, and there presumably seen by Milton. — Bayona's hold. 



154 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

Bayona and its fortress were south of Namancos in Galicia. 
Milton presumably took the two names directly from the Atlas, 
selecting the coast of Spain as less familiar and more remote 
and picturesque than that of France. A glance at the map will 
show that a line from Penzance escaping France will directly 
strike Galicia. 

164. — Arion, the musician, thrown into the sea, was rescued 
by dolphins. 

168. — day-star. Here the sun, though usually the morning- 
star, Lucifer. 

170. — tricks. Arranges. — ore. Gold. 

175.— See Comus, 838, n. 

176. — unexpressive. That may not be expressed or de- 
scribed. — nuptial song. Of the marriage of the Lamb, de- 
scribed in Revelation, xix, 7. 

181. — Compare Revelation, vii, 7, xxi, 4. 

183[ — Genius. The tutelary divinity of a special place in 
classic mythology. 

186. — uncouth. Probably in the sense of simple, rude, un- 
taught. Sidey, in Modern Language Notes, 23, 92, refers to 
Vergil, Eclogues, III, 26, 27. 

188. — tender stops of various quills. The holes stopped by 
the fingers are "tender" from the elegiac notes that come from 
them. The "various quills" are "the varied strains of the 
elegy" (at 11. 76, 88, 113, 132, 165). 

189.— Doric lay. Pastoral lay, the Doric being the dialect 
of Greek in which Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus wrote. 

190. By lengthening their shadows. 

192. — blue. Not so common a color as gray for shepherds* 
dress among the poets. 

192. — Modelled, as Verity points out, on a line in Fletcher's 
Purple Island, VI, 77: 

Home then, my lambs; the falling drops eschew; 
To-morrow shall ye feast in pastures new; 

and often, as he notes, misquoted with substitution of "fields" 
for "woods." The reference is to Milton's proposed change of 
life, either his resolve to change his residence from Horton to 
London, as Verity thinks possible, or, if decided at the time 
of this poem, his plan to travel. 



NOTES 155 



VIII— TO MR. H. LAWES, ON HIS AIRS 

This sonnet was written in 1646, and printed among the 
prefatory verses to the Choice Psalms of Henry and William 
Lawes, published in 1648. It is inserted here because of the 
connection of Henry Lawes with Comus, explained above. It 
may be added that Milton's praise is not merely the language 
of friendship; Henry Lawes is credited with having brought 
about by his songs a closer union and harmony between words 
and music. 

4. — Midas' ears. King Midas, having decided in Pan's 
favor in judging a contest of musical skill between Pan and 
Phoebus, was given asses' ears by the latter. 

11. — hymn. In reference to the volume in which it first 
appeared. — story. According to Warton, Cartwright's story of 
Ariadne was set to music by Lawes. 

13. — See Dante's Purgatory, II. 

14. — milder. In comparison with those of hell. 

IX— ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT 

The massacre of the Vaudois by the Duke of Savoy because 
of their refusal to become Roman Cathohcs excited the utmost 
horror in England. It called forth a sharp protest and chal- 
lenge from Cromwell on behalf of the Commonwealth. Milton, 
as Latin Secretary, despatched this message, and phrased his 
own sorrow and indignation in this, one of his finest sonnets. 
The date was 1655. 

7. — Described in contemporary accounts. 

12.— triple Tyrant. The Pope, in reference to his triple 
crown, typical of power on earth, in heaven, and in hell. 

13. — A hundredfold. A variation of the famous saying of 
Tertullian, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," 
as noted by Masson. 

14.— Babylonian woe. The Church of Rome so styled by the 
Puritans through their application of Revelation, xvii and xviii. 

X— ON HIS BLINDNESS 

No date is afl[ixed to this sonnet. Milton became blind in 
1652. Masson, after referring to the exultation of his enemies, 
who maintained that his misfortune was a divine judgment, 



156 MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS 

says: "Again and again in Milton's later writings, in prose and 
in verse, there are passages of the most touching sorrow over 
his darkened and desolate condition, with yet a tone of the 
most pious resignation, and now and then an outbreak of a 
proud conviction that God, in blinding his bodily eyes, had 
meant to enlarge and clear his inner vision, and make him one 
of the world's truest seers and prophets. The present sonnet 
is one of the first of these confidences of Milton on the subject 
of his bhndness." 

2. — Ere half my days, Milton became completely blind on or 
shortly after his forty-third year. 

3.— See Matthew, xv, 14-30. 

12. — thousands. The angels, his messengers, as their name 
implies. 

14. — A famous line often quoted. 



INDEX TO THE NOTES 



A, 83 

accustomed, 89 
Acheron, 134 
adjuring, 141 
adventurous, 104 
affects, 123 
Age of Gold, 77 
airy shell, 113 
allay, 105 
alley, 118 
amaranthus, 153 
Amaryllis, 149 
amazement, 121 
amber cloud, 119 
amber-dropping, 141 
ambrosial, 101, 141 
amiss, 108 
Amphitrite, 142 
Anchises' line, 142 
ancient, 118 
antic, 92 
Anubis, 78 
Arcady, 120 
Arethuse, 150 
Arion, 154 
artful, 129 
as, 75, 137 
Ashtaroth, 78 
asphodel, 140 
assays, 143 
attendance, 118 
Attendant Spirit, 98 
at the door, 152 
Attic boy, 91 
Aurora, 83 
awe, 102 
axle-tree, 75 
ay me, 130 
azurn, 142 

Baalim, 78 

Babylonian woe, 155 

baits, 131 

band, 142 

bare wand, 135 

Bayona's hold, 153-154 

be. 101 

Bear, the, 90 

becks, 84 

bellman, 90 

besprent, 132 

bested, 88 

birds of calm, 75 

blasts, 141 



blaze, 149 
blear illusion, 108 
bhnd Fury, 150 
blind mouths, 152 
blot, 107 
blow, 144 
blue, 154 
blue-haired, 102 
boast of skill, 116 
bolt, 138 

bonnet sedge, 151 
bosky bourne, 118 
bosomed, 85 
bosoms, 122 
bottom glade, 131 
bout, 87 
bower, 85 
brag, 138 
brakes, 107 
bright, 99 

bright-harnessed, 79 
brim, 107 
brooding, 83 
brow, 131 
brown, 92 
Brute, 140 
brute earth, 139 
brutish, 78 
budge, 137 
buskined, 91 
bustle, 123 
but not, 150 
buxom, 83 
by course, 101 
by due steps, 101 
by them, 132 

Camus, 151 

canker, 148 

canon laws of our foundation, 139 

care, 130, 151 

Carpathian wizard's hook, the, 141 

cassia, 144 

cast, 121 

casts, 111 

Cerberus, 83 

chair, 107 

change, 100 

charactered, 131 

charming-rod, 105 

Chaucer, 91 

cherubim, 89 

Cimmerian, 83 

civil-suited, 91 

157 



158 



INDEX TO THE NOTES 



clear, 149 

cloister's pale, 92 

close, 76 

clouted, 135 

commercing, 89 

Comus, 93-98 

confidence, 133 

Conscience, 110 

consort, 77, 92 

constant, 122 

cordial julep, 136 

corners, 145 

corporal rind, 136 

Cotytto, 107 

country dancers, 143 

courtesy, 118 

court guise, 143 

courtly, 79 

covenants, 136 

cranks, 84 

creatures of the element, 117 

crew, 98 

crispfed, 143 

crofts, 131 

crown that Virtue gives, the, 100 

crow-toe, 153 

crude, 147 

crude surfeit, 129 

crystal glass, 104 

Cupid, 144, 145 

curb, 140 

cure, 142 

curious, 137 

curls, 134 

Cynic tub, the, 137 

cynosure, 85 

cypress lawn, 89 

daffadilly, 153 

Damoetas, 148 

dances, 143 

dapper, 106 

date of grief, 122 

day-star, 154 

dazzling spells, 108 

deadly forfeit, 74 

dear, 139 

Death, ribs of, 133 

debonair, 83 

defence is a good cause, 129 

delicacy, 136 

Delphic, 80 

Delphos, 77 

demons, 96 

descends or enters, 99 

desert cell, 123 

Deva, 149 

dews, 139 

diet, 89 

dim, 100, 151 

dim darkness, 116 

dingle, 118 

Diodati, 135 



dips, 139 

direct, 139 

discovers, 99 

disinherit Chaos, 119 

displayed, 76 

divine, 91 

doing abhorrfed rites, 131 

Doric lay, 154 

do thee little stead, 135 

downs, 130 

Dragon, Old, 77 

drouth of Phoebus, 104 

drove, 148 

drowsy-flighted, 132 

drudging goblin, the, 86 

Dryades, 143 

duck or nod, 143 

dun, 107 

easy numbers, 80 
eating cares, 87 
Echo, 111, 112, 113 
eclipse, 150 
eglantine, 84 
element, 117 
elysium, 115 
embowfed roof, 92 
enamelled, 153 
engaged, 109 
engine, 152 
enow, 139, 151 
ere a close, 132 
ere half my days, 156 
Ethiop queen, 88 
Euphrosyne, 83 
Extreme shift, 116 
eye, 124 
eye me, 118 
eyne, 79 

fable of Bellerus, 153 

fables, 139 

faculties, 135 

faery, 117 

fairly, 108 

faith, 105 

fall, 114 

fallows, 84 

fantastic, 84 

Fauns, 148 

fear of Jove, 89 

fence, 139 

finny drove, 106 

fire, 106 

First Brother, 98 

first Scene, *he, 99 

fixfed. 88 

flamens, 77 

flashy, 152 

flat sea, 122 

flowery cave. 113 

fog, 116 

fond, 88, 104 



INDEX TO THE NOTES 



159 



foreign, 115 
freaked, 153 
free, 83 

friar's lantern, 86 
frieze, 137 
frounced, 91 

gaudy trim, 74 
gay, 139 
gear, 108 
Genius, 92 
genius, 154 
gentle, 116, 120 
glancing, 104 
Glaucus, 141, 142 
glistering, 105 
globe, 76 

glozing courtesy, 108 
goblin, drudging, 86 
goes about to rise, 136 
golden key. 101 
gorgeous, 90 
Graces, the, 144 
grain, 89, 138 
granges, 108 
grant they be so, 121 
grave saws, 106 
gray-fly, 148 
grisly, 134 
Guendolen, 140 
guilty, 74 

habit, 98, 108 

Haemony, 135 

hairy gown, 92 

halloo, 129 

hall or bower, 103 

happy trial, 134 

Harpies and Hydras, 134 

has, 102 

heat, 121, 142 

Hebe, 84 

Hecate, 107 

he knew, 147 

herald of the sea, 150 

herb, 132 

Hermes, 90 

her own loins, 137 

Hesperian tree, 124 

hideous, 77 

hills, snowy, 143 

hinds, 108 

Hippotades, 150 

his, 91 

hist, 89 

hit, 88, 117 

hoar, 84 

hollow round, 76 

homely, 138 

hooked, 75 

how chance, 130 

huddling, 129 

bug, 108 



hundredfold, 155 
huswife, 138 
hutched, 137 
Hymen, 87 
hymn, 155 

Ida, 89 

I hate, 138 
ill is lost, 116 
ill-managed, 108 

II Penseroso, 81, 82, 88 
imbathe, 140 

Ind, 134 

Indian steep, 107 

influence, 75, 87, 119, 120 

inform, 109 

innumerous, 121 

insphered, 99 

in unsuperfluous even proportion, 139 

invite, 85 

Iris, 104 

iron stakes, 129 

Isis, 78 

Isle, but this, 101 

its, 76 

Jonson, 87 
Jove, 89, 99, 130 
joy, 136 
Juno, 137 
just hands, 101 

keys, 101, 151 
knot-grass, 132 

labored, 117 
laboring, 85 
labyrinth, 116 
Lady, 98 
U Allegro, 81, 82 
land-pilot's art, 118 
landskip, 84 
lank, 140 

Lars and Lemures, 77 
last fulfilling, 76 
laureate hearse, 153 
lawn, 75 
lawns, 84 
lawns and 
leans, 121 
leavy, 116 
Leucothea, 142 
lewdly, 139 
lickerish, 136 
lies, 85, 86 
lime-twigs, 136 
liquid, 143 
listened them, 132 
litter, 133 
livelong, 80 
livery, 84 
lodge, 121 
loose, 108 



. leas, 143 



160 



INDEX TO THE NOTES 



lovelorn, 113 

low-roosted lark, 118 

Lucifer, 75 

lucky, 148 

Lybic Hammon, 78 

Lycidas, 145-147 

Lydian airs, 87 

Mab, 85 

mace, 141 

madrigal, 129 

mansion, 99 

mansions, 77 

mantling, 117 

margent, 113 

masque, 87 

massy proof, 92 

matin, 86 

mazes, 109 

Meander, 113 

meditate, 132 

meditate the thankless muse, 149 

melancholy blood, 139 

Meliboeus, 139 

melodious tear, 148 

Memnon, 88 

messes, 85 

mickle, 102 

Midas' ears, 155 

midst, 74 

mighty Pan, the, 75 

milder, 155 

mildew-blast, 135 

mincing, 143 

mintage, 131 

minute drops, 92 

misery, 104 

mitred, 151 

moist vows, 153 

Moloch, 78 

Mona, 149 

Monody, 147 

monstrous rout, 131 

monstrous world, 153 

monumental oak, 92 

moon-loved maze, 79 

Morpheus, 88 

morris dance, 106 

mortal, 100 

mould, 101 

mount, 162 

mountain watch, 105 

mouths, 152 

murmurs, 130 

Musseus, 91 

Muse, 148, 149 

Muses, the, 74, 148 

music of the spheres, 76, 145 

musky, 144 

myrtle, 75 

Naiades, 114 
Namancos, 153 



Narcissus, 113 
nard, 144 
navel, 130 
near-ushering, 116 
Nesera, 149 
nectared, 129 
nectared lavers, 140 
Nepenthes, 136 
Nereus, 140 
nerves, 136, 139 
next, 136 
nice, 107 

night-foundered, 129 
night-raven, 83 
night-steeds, 79 
ninefold, 77 
noise, 76 
notion, 139 
nuptial song, 154 
nut-brown, 85 
Nymphs, 77 

oaten, 120 

obscurfed, 131 

obtruding, 138 

Oceanus, 141 

Old Dragon, the, 77 

olive, 75 

onftinous, 103 

once more, 147 

one, 107 

one way, 75 

On His Blindness, 155-156 

On His Having Arrived at the Age of 

Twenty-three, 80 
On Shakespeare, 79, 80 
On the Late Massacre in Piedmont, 

155 
On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, 

73, 74 
ore, 137, 154 
or ere, 75 
organ, 77 
orient, 104 
Orpheus, 87, 149 
Orus, 78 
Osiris, 78, 79 
ounce, 104 

outwatch the Bear, 90 
over-exquisite, 120 

pageantry, 87 
pale, 91, 153 
palmer, 109 
Pan, 108 
Panope, 150 
paramour, 74 
parching, 148 
parley, 114 
pastoral reed, 120 
pearled, 140 
pensioners, 88 
pensive, 123 



INDEX TO THE NOTES 



161 



Peor, 78 

perfect, 104, 110 
period, 133 
perplexed, 102 
pert, 106 
pestered, 100 
pet, 137 
Philomel, 89 
Phoebus, 150 
pillared, 134 
Pilot, the, 151 
pinching, 86 
pledge, 151 
plight, 122 
plighted, 117 
plumes, 123 
ply the sampler, 138 
poison, 103 
pole, 106 
pollute, 75 
pomp, 87 
port, 117 
pranked, 138 
prevent, 74, 133 
prevented, 116 
pride, 138 
print, 74 

printless feet, 142 
prithee, 130 
proportioned, 118 
Psyche, 144, 145 
pulling, 86 
pulse, 137 
purchase, 134 
purfled, 144 
puts by. 136 

quaint, 77, 108, 153 
quarters, 102 
quills, 154 
quips, 84 

rathe, 153 

rebecks, 85 

recks 124 

reed, 120 

regard, 135 

region, 76 

resort, 123 

ribs of Death, the, 133 

rife, 110 

rime royal, 74 

rises, 142 

rites, 107 

rout, 105, 149 

rule, 120 

russet. 84 



sable. 111 
sable-stolfed, 79 
Sabrina. 98-99, 140, 142 



sad, 89, 109 

sadly, 130 

8age poets, 130 

sages, 74 

sampler, 138 

sanguine flower, 151 

sapphire, 101 

Saturn's reign, 89 

sceptred pall, 90 

scrannel, 152 

scrip, 135 

Scylla, 115 

seat, 142 

Second Brother, 98 

secret, 74 

secure, 85 

seeks to, 123 

serene, 100 

session, 77 

several, 79 

several government, 101 

Shakespeare, 80, 87 

shatter, 147 

shelves, 106 

shepherd lad, 135 

shew, 130 

shew'th, 80 

shoon, 135 

shrewd, 141 

shrine, rural, 115 

shroud. 118. 148 

shrouds, 107 

siding. 110 

silly. 76 

simples, 135 

simply, 75 

singM air, 143 

single, 122 

single darkness, 110 

Sirens three. 114 

Sisters of the sacred well. 148 

sleep. 77 

slits. 150 

slope. 106 

smooth-dittied, 104 

smooth-haired silk. 137 

smoothly, 145 

snaky twine, 79 

Sons of Morning, 76 

soothest, 140 

sooty flag of Acheron, the, 134 

so to seek, 122 

sounds and seas, 106 

sovran, 103 

spangled, 74 

sparely looks, 152 

spare Temperance, 139 

speckled, 77 

sped. 152 

spell of, 92 

spheres, the, 76, 106, 114, 145 

spongy air, 108 

spruce, 143 



162 



INDEX TO THE NOTES 



sprung, 133 
square, 118 
stabled wolves, 131 
starlight, 117 
Star of Arcady, 120 
starry choir, 106 
starved, 88 
star-ypointing, 80 
state, 84, 102 
stealth, 130 
steep, 105 
Stoic fur, the, 137 
stole, 89, 109 
stops, 154 
story, 155 
strook, 76 
Stygian, 83 
such two, 133 
sung, 76 
sunshine, 85 
surcharged, 137 
suspicious flight, 108 
swart star, 152 
swilled, 108 
swinges, 77 
swinked, 117 
Sylvan, 92, 116 

taint-worm, 149 

tale, 84 

tamed, 85 

tawny sands, 106 

team, 74 

tease, 138 

teeming, 108 

tells his tale, 84 

tender, 154 

Tethys, 141 

Thammuz, 78 

than, 75 

then, 86 

Thetis, 142 

thievish Night, 109 

think what, 138 

this, 100 

those, 99 

though, 120 

thousands, 156 

Thyrsis, 129 

tissued, 77 

to. 130 

To Mr. H. Lawes, on His Airs, 155 

took, 76 

to-ruffled, 123 

tourneys, 91 

toy, 88, 130 

trains, lu8 

tributary gods, 101 

tricked, 91 

tricks, 154 

triple Tyrant, 155 

Triton, 141 

triumph, 87 



trophies hung, 91 
trust, 102 
tufted. 85, 111 
turning sphere, 75 
turtle-wing, 75 
twice-battered god, 78 
twine, 79, 106 
two-handed engine, 152 
Typhon, 79 
Tyrant, triple, 155 
Tyrian, 78 

unadomfed, 101 
uncouth, 83, 154 
unexempt condition, 136 
unexpressive, 76, 154 
union, 76 
unless, 115 
unmoulding, 131 
unmuffle, 119 
unprincipled, 122 
unreprovfed, 84 
unseen, 84 
unshowered, 79 
unsphere, 90 
unsunned, 124 
unthread thy joints, 135 
unvalued, 80 
unwilHng, 132 
unwithdrawing hand, 137 
urchin blasts, 141 
urn, 148 
use, 149 

various bustle of resort, 123 

vein, 74 

velvet heads, 142 

vermeil-tinctured, 138 

Vesta, 88 

virtuous, 91, 135 

vision, 117 

vision of the guarded mount, 

153 
vizored, 136 
vocal air, 114 
votarist, 109 
Vulcan, 136 

wakes, 107 

waking bliss, 115 

wanton, 152 

wanton wiles, 84 

warranted, 118 

wassailers, 109 

wattled cotes, 120 

weeds, 87, 124 

well, 110 

well-attired woodbine, 153 

welter, 148 

what, 138 

what if, 121 

what needs, 80, 122 



INDEX TO THE NOTES 



163 



what recks, 152 
what time, 117 
where, 102 
while, 136 
whist, 75 
white-thorn, 149 
wind me, 108 
wizards, 74 
wonest, 119 
wont, 74 
woodbine, 153 



wreathfed smiles, 84 
wrinkled, 141 

ychained, 77 

yclept, 83 

ye, 110 

yet, 134 

yon small hill, 117 

youngest-teemfed, 79 

Zephyr, 83 



APR 181910 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: March 2009 

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